Indigenous landowners have called in lawyers over what they say is a political intervention by the Coalition weeks before the election to block its plans to clear 45 football fields of bush in the city’s north and build 450 homes.

The Planning Department, now in caretaker mode, confirmed on Wednesday it was still assessing the controversial proposal despite Planning Minister Anthony Roberts announcing at the weekend that it would not go ahead under a re-elected Coalition government.

Bushland at Lizard Rock near Belrose, where the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council wants to develop housing.Credit:Wolter Peeters

Since 2006, the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council has sought to develop the 71-hectare Lizard Rock site near Belrose into a low-rise housing development with shops, community centre and recreation facilities.

Last year the government added six of the land council’s northern beaches sites into a special Aboriginal planning policy that allows development proposals to be assessed through an independent state-appointed panel, bypassing local councils and panels.

Three days before Christmas, the Sydney North Planning Panel determined the Lizard Rock project – which the land council estimates would generate up to $855 million in revenue – had both strategic and site-specific merit and should proceed to the next stage.

That panel, chaired by former Liberal leader Peter Debnam, was briefed by the department, Northern Beaches Council and the land council.

Land council chief executive Nathan Moran said he was bewildered by the government’s move.Credit:James Brickwood

But with Liberal MPs in the area retiring, and new Liberal candidates facing credible threats from teal independents campaigning against the development, the Liberal Party intervened over the weekend in an attempt to crush the project.

The Daily Telegraph quoted Roberts as saying community concerns about infrastructure, bushfire risk and density could not be overlooked, and if the Coalition was re-elected, “we will not allow the rezoning application for Lizard Rock to proceed”.

The land council has now engaged lawyers and consultants Chalk and Behrendt, which sent letters to Premier Dominic Perrottet and Roberts seeking: clarity on the status of the proposal; copies of correspondence between the two men and; correspondence between the premier’s office and the journalist who wrote the Telegraph story.

The firm’s founder Andrew Chalk said the land council was confused about whether Roberts had formally rejected the proposal, initiated a review or simply given quotes to a newspaper.

“If you have not formally rejected our client’s planning proposal or undertaken the review, then, as a matter of principle, our client objects to the interference with the independent planning process you established and encouraged our client to engage with,” Chalk wrote.

“In any case, no forewarning was given, and no consultation occurred with our client in relation to the decision. It is not appropriate that our client, an Aboriginal Land Council with limited resources, learns the fate of its planning proposal in a Sunday paper.”

In a statement, the Planning Department confirmed the project was still under assessment and no changes had been made. “The department continues to be in regular contact with the proponent to update it on the process. All other questions should be directed to Minister Roberts’ office,” it said.

Roberts’ office did not respond to questions before deadline, while the premier’s office refused to answer questions, referring the Herald to the Telegraph story.

Land council chief executive Nathan Moran said he was bewildered by the government’s move because Roberts had been supportive in the past. He conceded about 45 football fields of bush would be cleared but said this was about 0.25 per cent of the area’s vegetation.

“Our land is private land. The biggest misnomer in this is people feeling that somehow they have a right to speak about private freehold land,” Moran said. “We do feel it’s about racism and paternalism, that people believe they know what’s best for us.”

Labor agrees with the government. Planning spokesman Paul Scully said he would work with the land council and the council to find a use for the site, but that wouldn’t include the housing plan.

The controversial proposal has become highly charged as independent candidates in surrounding seats make it a focus of their campaigns – such as Northern Beaches mayor Michael Regan, who is running in Wakehurst, where Brad Hazzard is retiring, and Jacqui Scruby, a teal contender for Rob Stokes’ old seat of Pittwater.

Regan, who has been mayor since 2008, has consistently opposed the scheme. He says the housing lots are “not required” and the northern beaches already has plans to build sufficient housing in better locations.

“We don’t build in the bush. It’s bushfire prone, there’s no infrastructure … there is nothing here and that’s why it has never been considered and will never be considered,” he said last month.

Former federal Liberal MP for Mackellar Jason Falinski, who campaigned against the proposal when he was an MP, maintained it was a bad development because it was not in the right place.

But he said Northern Beaches Council should have dealt with it, instead of declining to be the consent authority in January. “Was it ideal for the minister to come in? No,” he said. “But what would have been ideal is for the local council to deal with the issue, and they refused.”

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