By Kate Bonsack
THE future of the controversial Knights Marine Centre development in Williamstown will be known in the next few weeks.
Hobsons Bay City Council lodged an appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last year after certain conditions it requested from the developer and the Department of Planning and Community Development were omitted. A hearing between the parties will be held on 3 August.
The development to be built adjacent to Knights Slipway, between the Hobsons Bay Yacht Club and the Royal Victorian Motor Yacht Club, includes berths for about 370 yachts, restaurants, cafes and marine enterprises at a cost of about $11 million.
There have been community fears that the development would be oversized and that the historical Ferguson Pier at the end of Ferguson St could be tore down for the development.
The developer received a lease of the site along Nelson Place from Parks Victoria in 2007 and had sought approval from Hobsons Bay City Council and the two yacht clubs for a marine centre to be built.
Hobsons Bay City Council originally supported the proposal subject to the Department of Planning and Community Development including certain conditions in the permit.
