Two controversial houses constructed on protected escarpment land at Corrimal will be allowed to stay if Wollongong City Council administrators vote in support of a council report next week.The Vellar family company that owns the site is also likely to escape legal action by the council.Two dwellings on the Glenlea St site were approved by the council in 1994 in exchange for 70ha of escarpment land being returned to the public to include in the Illawarra Escarpment Reserve.RELATED COVERAGE -------------------------
Tear down the Velar mansions: residents Frank Vellar's unfinished mansions fail standards -----------------------------------------------But in June 2007, an escarpment review found the partially built houses had been located outside the boundaries approved for residential development.The properties are owned by Vic Vellar Nominees, a family company of which Frank Vellar is one of three directors.In unrelated Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings involving Wollongong City Council, Mr Vellar was found by ICAC to have engaged in "serious corrupt conduct".The Corrimal site was not the subject of any ICAC hearings and Mr Vellar only became a director of Vic Vellar Nominees in 1998 - four years after the council approved the disputed dwellings.A report to be considered at Tuesday's council meeting recommends the zoning boundaries be modified to reflect the footprint already occupied by the houses. An independent review partially blamed a discrepancy between the approved plans and the zoning boundary on a drafting error in compiling the zoning maps.Council planners considered three options for the houses - zoning the area for environmental conservation and ordering the houses be demolished; extending the original boundaries in which the houses should have been built; or rezoning the footprint occupied by the houses to allow residential development.The report has recommended administrators endorse the final option, despite 19 public submissions calling for the houses to be demolished.The council has also considered what action to take on a number of breaches of planning guidelines and building standards. They include the construction of an unauthorised basement in the northern house, footings on both houses which do not comply with Australian Standards, the southern home's location 10 to 15m west of its approved footprint and issues arising from driveway and stormwater works.Action to prosecute the company for breaches has been ruled out by the length of time that has lapsed since construction was undertaken from 1994 to July 1998.The council has also ruled out taking civil action to have the buildings demolished and will instead try to reach an agreement with the landowner to voluntarily rectify the work and restore public access to adjoining national parks land. The council found that the houses' location was "preferable" to the area permitted in 1994. Vic Vellar Nominees was unavailable to comment.
