The long-running battle over the proposed Gorge Hotel continues, with a Launceston restaurateur's latest appeal against the proposed tower partially hitting a legal dead-end.
Susan Cai, owner of the Golden Brumby and sitting member of the City of Launceston council, has had part of her latest appeal against the 39-metre-tall, 145-room hotel struck out.
Developer TRC Multi Property Pty Ltd, part of the JAC Group founded by Josef Chromy, had applied to amend the permit to include a further 14 hotel rooms, five new car parking spaces, and a reduction in the space given to retail activities and conference rooms.
This amendment was approved by the council on Christmas Eve 2025.
Ms Cai appealed to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) on five grounds.
One of them was the invalidity of the underlying planning permit, which had an expiration date of three years after the Launceston Local Provisions Schedule took effect in September 2022.
The developers sought to have the appeal thrown out on the basis that the deadline was September 21, 2026, and so the permit was valid.
They also argued that, failing that, the planning scheme did not require a development application to be valid before an amendment was made.
This was the argument favoured by senior tribunal member Sam Thompson, who struck out one ground of Ms Cai's appeal as it was a legal dead-end.
In his finding published by TASCAT, Mr Thompson said in this instance the tribunal was unable to consider the validity of the underlying permit.
He said the legislation that established the tribunal was clear he could only consider the decision being appealed, in this case the amendment to the permit, and if he sided with Ms Cai and overturned the council's approval the permit would still exist - even if it was invalid.
Mr Thompson said, alternatively, he could decide an invalid permit did not invalidate the amendment but that would not lead to a legal resolution.
"In either case, the decision to grant a permit would be unaffected by the Tribunal's conclusions and orders," Mr Thompson said.
"While any finding I may make about the permit's invalidity may have some moral force, it would not be binding or otherwise provide the parties with relief."
The remainder of the appeal, which includes objections on four grounds, remains before the tribunal with further proceedings scheduled for April 21, 2026.
'Protecting our home'
The battles over the proposed Gorge Hotel began soon after it was first proposed, and an appeal was lodged with the tribunal soon after councillors voted 10-to-one to approve a development application in 2019.
These were led by Launceston Heritage not Highrise, a group which seeks to preserve the city's existing low-rise skyline.
The tribunal overturned the council's decision, but the proposal was brought back before councillors in September 2022 and approved once more.
Ms Cai - who was elected to the council after the hotel's second approval - appealed this decision to the tribunal again, with the body upholding the council's decision.
This decision was taken to the Supreme Court by Ms Cai, and in 2024 Justice Stephen Estcourt dismissed her appeal after finding there was "no substance" to it.
Ms Cai told The Examiner after the 2026 tribunal proceedings she and her family were simply "trying to protect" their home of 22 years.
"The so-called 'minor amendment' - adding 14 more rooms and five extra parking spaces - is making an already large building even wider, with added columns at both the front and back," she said.
"We're really worried about what this means for our home."