When I spoke at the recent Local Government Property
Professionals Conference on owner-initiated hardship applications,
a couple of key points arose around hardship applications.
Public purpose: Acquisition provisions must operate
meaningfully and effectively.
In Calarco and Anor v Liverpool City Council [2018]
NSWSC 217, the Supreme Court made it clear that the hardship
provisions of Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act
1991 are intended to operate in a practical and realistic
fashion.
In this case, the plaintiffs, Giuseppe and Antonetta Calarco,
owned a parcel of land in Australia composed of two portions. One
portion was zoned RE1 Public Recreation and the other zoned SP2
Infrastructure and marked "Local Drainage" under the
State Environmental Planning Policy (Sydney Region Growth
Centres) 2006.