An application to change a development approval granted for a motel in Port Douglas. The applicants owned units in the motel for temporary accommodation. The second respondent (Mr Shubel), the owner and occupant of the manager’s unit, opposed the relief sought. He was also a director of a company which had a letting and a caretaking agreement with the body corporate. The applicants sought to change the development approval by deleting a condition which required each of the motel units be managed and let by a single operator. Mr Shubel’s primary argument was that the proposed change was not a minor change because it would result in a substantially different development as it would remove a component integral to the operation of the motel, being the requirement for a single operator for management and letting services, and change the way in which the use operates.
Fantin DCJ held in favour of the applicants finding that the proposed change would not result in a substantially different development as the change would not result in the motel’s change of use, applying for new land, change of appearance of the units or impact traffic flows.
Salwa Marsh appeared for the applicants, instructed by Miller Bou-Samra Lawyers.
The judgment is published here.
