According to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Frank Vellar's Quattro proposal exceeded the area's planning guidelines in almost every way and if it hadn't been for senior planner Beth Morgan, it possibly wouldn't have seen the light of day.

ICAC found Ms Morgan engaged in "serious corrupt conduct" while assessing the Quattro proposal which was lodged by her then lover Frank Vellar, who was also found to have engaged in corrupt conduct.

By any standard the Quattro development was ambitious. Costing more than $100 million and encompassing more than 10,400sqm, the building was to include more than 280 residential units along with 803 parking spaces.

The precinct's maximum building height was 11m; Quattro towered at about 48m. It was three times the size of any comparable development in the city.

Since the damaging ICAC hearings, Wollongong City Council has been trying to undo the approval engineered by Ms Morgan and Mr Vellar.

On March 20 the council took Mr Vellar's company, Sebvell Living, to the Land and Environment Court where it succeeded in obtaining an injunction, effectively preventing Mr Vellar from starting work on the Quattro site.

Through a rarely used section of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, the council's solicitors argued the Quattro's approval would eventually be found to have been "tainted by corruption".

Yesterday's report was an unexpected gift to the council which had until June 18 to prove Quattro's consent was corrupted.

"Wollongong City Council welcomes the recommendations of the ICAC inquiry relating to the Quattro development consent released today," the council's administrators said in a joint statement yesterday.

Planning Minister Frank Sartor yesterday said he would suspend Quattro's consent even if the court's decision went against the council.

"Should this suspension be lifted by the court, I stand ready to exercise my powers flowing from the ICAC recommendations," he said.

The Quattro proposal is one of two by Mr Vellar named in ICAC hearings which the council is fighting.

It is also trying to back out of a 2004 agreement to hand over the North Beach Bathers Pavilion lease to Mr Vellar.

More stories on ICAC's findings in Thursday's Mercury