Builder wins legal stoush to build $16.5M retirement village

After a stop-start journey through the planning system, a proposal for 26 independent living units has won approval from the NSW Land and Environment Court.

A village “community hub” with a pool, gym, theatre and library will also be constructed at the site in Narraweena, 18km northeast of Sydney’s CBD.

Builder Vigor Master, of Chatswood, 10km north of Sydney’s centre, originally wanted to deliver 36 independent living units spread across six buildings but the development application was refused by the Northern Beaches Council in July 2023.

In January 2024, Vigor Master then submitted a new development application for 26 units on the site, which was again rejected by the Council. The applicant appealed to the NSW Land and Environment Court, which approved the development in July 2025.

At the July hearing, NSW Land and Environment Court Senior Commissioner Susan Dixon found that there were inconsistencies in statutory frameworks that impacted the site and ruled the project acceptable, granting development consent.

But in November 2025, the Northern Beaches Council appealed against the Land and Environment Court’s decision on grounds of legal error, one of the few pathways available for overturning a ruling within the same Court. 

The Presiding Commissioner of the new hearing, Land and Environment Court Chief Judge Brian Preston, said the previous Commissioner had misconstrued previous Acts and planning instruments.

The development application was then sent back to the Commissioner to be “redetermined according to law” and has now finally been approved.

The proposed site is opposite Australian Unity’s Willandra Retirement Village, with Willandra Retirement Bungalows and Marston Living Beacon Hill Retirement Village and Henroth Investments’ Falls Estate also located nearby.