Residents sue over casino hotel
The future of James Packer's proposed $570 million six-star hotel at Burswood is under a cloud after more than 100 nearby residents launched a Supreme Court challenge against the Barnett Government.
The residents, who own luxury apartments and townhouses at Mirvac's Burswood Peninsula development adjacent to Mr Packer's Crown Perth entertainment complex, allege the Government's planning approval for the 25-storey hotel is invalid and should be thrown out.
Their case hinges on the Casino (Burswood Island) Agreement Act, the original State agreement passed by the Burke government in 1985 that facilitated the development of the original hotel and casino complex by Dallas Dempster and his Malaysian partner Genting International.
The Barnett Government relied on provisions in the Act, which has been modified several times by Parliament over the years, to sidestep the State's usual public town planning process. Instead, Racing and Gaming Minister Terry Waldron alone issued planning approval for the hotel.
The residents fear the new hotel, which could have back-of-house service areas as close as 60m from their homes, will have a negative impact, including blocking city views.
Jeff McCann, one of the 108 plaintiffs and a spokesman for the residents, said the action was "a last resort".
"We wouldn't forge ahead if our lawyer didn't think we were a good shot," Mr McCann said.
"We are not asking for anything special. All we want is for this to be subject to the normal rigours of a public planning process, rather than a closed process controlled by one man."
In a Supreme Court writ lodged on Friday afternoon and served on Mr Waldron, the Government and Crown, the residents' lawyer, Doug Solomon, argues Mr Waldron did not have the power or authority to issue planning approval for the hotel.
The 1985 Agreement Act exempted the Burswood Island Casino from the usual town planning rules, instead placing planning approval in the hands of the Gaming Minister.
At the time, the race was on to develop the casino complex before the 1987 America's Cup defence in Fremantle.
In the writ, Mr Solomon argues the original Agreement Act contemplated development of a casino resort in two stages.
The first stage included building the casino, hotel, tennis courts, indoor stadium (the now-demolished Burswood Dome), convention centre and a golf course. The second stage was the building of a second hotel, the former Holiday Inn now known as Crown Promenade.
Mr Solomon argues the Agreement Act did not contemplate a third hotel - therefore Mr Waldron could not rely on the Act to approve Mr Packer's planned Crown Towers Perth hotel, which will feature 500 rooms, a pool, restaurants, bars, convention facilities and VIP gambling saloons.
"The Minister … was not and is not empowered by … the Casino Agreement to grant approval for the third hotel development," the writ says. "The development approvals … were beyond the powers conferred on the Minister … and are invalid."
The residents are seeking an injunction to prevent Crown from developing the hotel - construction of which was slated to begin within weeks - until they receive the usual planning approvals under the Metropolitan Region Scheme and the Town of Victoria's Park's local town planning scheme.
The Supreme Court writ also confirms that the Government was required to get the approval of Crown to excise land from the Burswood golf course to build the new 60,000-seat major stadium.
That approval was a condition of the sale agreement, under which Crown bought 5.8ha of land from the Government for $59,999,998.85. The Valuer-General had valued it at $95 million.
Mr Waldron, Premier Colin Barnett and Crown chief executive Barry Felstead all declined to comment yesterday because the matter was before the courts.
