Village plan dumped

Alex de Vos
A developer has dumped plans for a retirement village with 24-hour medical support at Torquay, angering residents.
Mark Casey has instead carved up the site next to The Esplanade’s Crown Plaza hotel for residential development.
Victoria Civil and Administra-tive Tribunal approved his plan for the retirement village, hotel and townhouses in 2004 despite hundreds of objections.
The hotel, at 100 The Esplanade, opened earlier this year but Mr Casey has put the retirement village land up for residential sale.
Torquay’s Roy Norris said he and other objectors had considered the retirement village the only “positive” in the project.
“We protested against the whole site but one positive thing was the retirement village with 24-hour medical assistance, which now isn’t going ahead.
Mr Casey said he “had no other choice” but to sell the land for residential development.
“The retirement units were too expensive for retirees and no one wanted to buy them,” Mr Casey said.
“I would have gone broke if I had have pressed ahead with the retirement village.”
Mr Casey denied he had used the retirement village as a carrot to placate objectors and win approval for his plan to redevelop the former Zeally Bay Caravan Park site.
“People might think I had an ulterior motive but I wanted to build a retirement village. It didn’t work, so I had to go back to the drawing board.”
Mr Casey said the land was originally zoned for residential use.
“I had every right at that stage to make it general housing if I wanted to, so there has really been no change,” he said.
“It was always the intention to build a retirement village – you don’t build 11 units and spend $7 million if it’s not your intention.”
Mr Casey has built a separate retirement village, Kithbrooke Park, on former Grossman family land west of Torquay.