5 years ago

27 October 2020

Trees’ last stand

Residents of a Noble Park housing estate feel duped after developers were given VCAT’s green light to bulldoze “the only trees in the village”. Homeowners say they they’d bought into the 158-dwelling Yarraman Village in 2016 after a salesperson indicated that the stand of mature river red gum trees would remain. Shawna Laviss said “I feel the greed of the developers and the bottom line of money has been put before the environment and the people of the community.” To add insult to injury, Ms Laviss was among nine formal objectors but wasn’t notified of the VCAT hearing. “As a result of Covid, the case was suspended and that was the last I heard until the shock news of the ruling yesterday,” she said. The developer The Village Building Company denies making representations to prospective buyers that it would retain the trees.