AAA<\/p>\n
Boroondara council has sued Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny and a James Packer-backed consortium over the government\u2019s approval of a controversial $520 million Kew development on the former site of Leo\u2019s Supermarket.<\/p>\n
The City of Boroondara has taken action in the Supreme Court, where it seeks to have the minister\u2019s fast-tracked approval of the consortium\u2019s plans to build an 18-storey residential and retail precinct<\/a> on the Kew Junction site thrown out or declared invalid.<\/p>\n In its submission to the court, the council argued Kilkenny\u2019s decision to grant the permit to developer Orchard Piper \u201cwas legally unreasonable or irrational\u201d and was based on errors in law.<\/p>\n The legal action centres on council-owned land adjoining the development, which Orchard Piper has offered to spend up to $12 million turning into new public open space under the approved permit. However, the council has hit back over the proposal, saying the developer does not own or control the land.<\/p>\n \u201cIn making the decision to grant the permit, the minister took into account \u2026 a theoretical \u2018offer\u2019 by the [developer] to unilaterally carry out specified works on adjoining land,\u201d the council\u2019s claim says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [developer] does not own or control the adjoining land, and it is not within its control to carry out those works.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Orchard Piper development, dubbed Kew Village, is set to comprise 194 homes across four buildings of varying heights, including one, two and three-bedroom apartments and townhouses, alongside ground floor retail and public spaces. Construction is planned to start late next year.<\/p>\n Approval was granted by Kilkenny in May via the Development Facilitation Program<\/a>, which allows the state government to override local regulations \u2013 including state-imposed activity centre limits \u2013 to fast-track major housing projects that include affordable housing.<\/p>\n The site is within an area of the Kew activity centre that allows for buildings up to 16 storeys tall, while a few hundred metres away Development Victoria is bulldozing the VicRoads site for housing.<\/p>\n Boroondara Mayor Wes Gault said the council submitted extensive feedback to the planning minister on how the development could be improved and was \u201cdisappointed that few changes were made\u201d.<\/p>\n Changes the council wants to see include a height limit of 16 storeys to reduce overshadowing, in addition to \u201cbetter landscaping\u201d and materials for the part of the project on council-owned land.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not opposed to this development \u2013 in fact we agree that this is a great site for a new mixed-use development,\u201d Gault said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we want to ensure the best result for our community with a building that better fits in the space, has affordable housing, and includes a public environment that delivers for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n The council\u2019s legal action was taken against Kilkenny and a company called Princess Kew Investments Pty Ltd, which is owned by a company controlled by Orchard Piper and billionaire James Packer\u2019s property investment vehicle, NPACT Pty Ltd.<\/p>\n A Boroondara spokesperson also raised broader concerns about the state government\u2019s pathway to approve developments, saying they believe local councils should be decision makers for development applications lodged within their municipalities.<\/p>\n A state government spokesman said the status quo was not an option for the Kew site.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to deliver more housing choice close to trains, trams, schools and jobs \u2013 and the development at the former Leo\u2019s Supermarket does exactly that,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201cWell-connected suburbs like Kew can\u2019t stay locked up forever. Jess Wilson\u2019s Liberals and Boroondara council are working overtime to block young people from buying a home close to where they grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n Orchard Piper declined to comment.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Boroondara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/04ae18ecd7929e8b78c69849cc8ec5e9961bf266.jpeg\")
Boroondara council is suing Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny over her approval of a development in Kew. Eamon Gallagher<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8db2b033288d17563cc7a36b3bd23465a60c54f4.jpeg\")
An artist\u2019s impression of the proposed development in Kew.Orchard Piper<\/p>\n![\"Rachael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768361476_288_540a687e77d331a49c3e6a6d8b0fa74e2948b9d663d6ef32cc687266b6743dc9.png\")
Rachael Ward<\/a> is a journalist in the City team at The Age. Contact her at rachael.ward@theage.com.auConnect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-799212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}