ANNA Bay Resort owner Frank Shi has until July to relocate or remove derelict buildings and shipping containers from the Gan Gan Road site under an agreement overseen by the NSW Land and Environment Court.
The finance-strapped derelict resort at the Birubi Beach and Stockton dunes entrance must be improved, despite being for sale, after Mr Shi reached agreement with Port Stephens Council following years of community complaints about the resort's condition.
Land and Environment Court commissioner Jenny Smithson acknowledged that since work ceased after 2012 on the planned 154-unit resort, partially-completed buildings had deteriorated, been vandalised and sprayed with graffiti, fences were in disrepair and sediment controls were in a poor condition.
Mr Shi's plan to complete the project after buying the site when it was placed in administration stalled when he also struggled with limited funds, the court was told.
"Little or no work has occurred in recent years," Ms Smithson said.
The resort's location and deterioration has angered Anna Bay residents who campaigned for the council to force the completion of works.
In 2019 the council issued an order requiring Mr Shi to complete the first stage of the development and obtain an occupation certificate within 12 months of the order. The order was based on a concern for safety, sand build-up on a road reserve and the negative visual impact of the partially-completed development.
Mr Shi and the council reached agreement on improvement works at the site after Mr Shi appealed to the Land and Environment Court.
He is required to install hay bales along the driveway at Gan Gan Road by the middle of March, plant trees along the road by July, remove derelict buildings and shipping containers from the site by July 31, 2020, or relocate them to an identified less-visible part of the resort site.
Mr Shi is also required to remove all visible graffiti within 30 days and install sediment control fencing.
Anna Bay resident Kelly Hammond said the resort, which had been an "eyesore" for at least seven years, left visitors thinking "this is what represents Anna Bay".
Because of the prominence of the derelict resort visitors "see the town as a dump and treat it as such", Ms Hammond said.
