On 23 September 2024 St Vincent de Paul Society Tasmania published a media release proudly announcing that construction is set to begin on its new, state-of-the-art southern base at Mill Lane in Glenorchy. Their new base will consolidate many existing functions into a single location, allowing greater efficiency in service delivery.

I have no quarrel with the sensible and worthwhile project. In fact, I wanted to know more about it. It was harder than I expected.

I first searched the agendas of all Planning Authority meetings that I could find online. Nothing there.

Some Council staff have delegations allowing them to deal with development applications in certain circumstances. Council publishes quarterly reports in its website that list approvals made under delegation. I searched them all. The closest match I could find was “PLN-23-264” described as “Alteration to Community Building” at “8 Mill Lane Glenorchy”, approved on 26 March 2024. The description was surprisingly uninformative for what has turned out to be a major construction project, not simply what most would regard as a renovation.

Now I had a Development Application and an application number “PLN-23-264”.

I searched the Mercury and found that the DA had been advertised on 6 March 2024. The description there – “Demolition, Addition and Alteration works to the existing building” – was different but no more informative, and certainly text which would not draw attention.

But wait, there’s more.

I googled the DA number in the entire Council website. It surfaced in the agenda of the 15 April 2024 Glenorchy Planning Authority Meeting in an item entitled “Planning Scheme Amendment Request – Mill Lane Rezoning” with number “PLAM-23/04”.

The effect of the planning scheme amendment was to label some land as the “Mill Lane Precinct”, rezone the land in it, and create a Mill Lane Specific Area Plan tweaking planning scheme controls over development on that land.

Buried in the 15 page report accompanying that item was this paragraph:

“A planning application PLN-23-264 was approved recently for sites at 8 and 12 Mill Lane, Glenorchy for a mixed-use development. The approval is related to existing uses and development to allow additions and alterations to the existing buildings to allow St Vincent De Paul Society (Vinnies) distribution centre with associated storage space (Storage use class), reconfiguration of existing Tas Textiles light manufacturing facility for textile knitting, sewing, and embroidery (Manufacturing and Processing use class), St Vincent Industries for cutting and production of rags (Manufacturing and Processing use class), subservient retail outlet shops for Vinnies and TasTextiles that would be open to the public, and a small scale catering/takeaway service for Loui’s Van Kitchen (Food Services use class). The planning permit has not yet been acted upon. The proposed planning scheme amendment will support the existing approved uses and development under PLN-23-264.”

Read the last sentence. The true purpose of the planning scheme amendment started to emerge.

More searching revealed a reference to Mill Lane in the Greater Glenorchy Plan (GGP) adopted by Council back in February 2021. The Council car park at 9–11 Mill Lane was said to be suited to infill residential development, but not number 8 over the road. So the planning scheme amendment had nothing to do with the GGP.

That planning authority meeting approved the next step in the process which was public consultation of the proposal. The documents provided to the public are still available on the council website.

Public consultation included a “Community Information Sesson” at a King George V meeting room on 3 October 2023 ostensibly to get feedback from the public on the proposal. Most attendees had difficulty discerning the actual purpose of the proposal. They regarded the Mill Lane situation as stable – long-term occupants with no plans for significant change. Major change seemed unlikely. The proposal seemed of little value. Much was made of its “strategic” nature. Much was made of the potential for apartment living. But the significance of Vinnies in the proposal was not mentioned.

Throughout the entire process, Council appeared reluctant to reveal to the public the underlying purpose of the proposal which was clearly not strategic.

All the information about the development application and related planning scheme amendment give a strong impression of an effort to expedite a Vinnies proposal with no fuss and minimal visibility.

The lack of transparency in this situation worries me. While the objectives of Vinnies are laudable and would be supported by most of the public, a lack of transparency in other circumstances might not be so benign. And while Council may not have deliberately obscured the underlying purpose of the planning scheme amendment, perception matters.