A PROPOSED $8 million ‘eco-tourist resort’ at Kitty Miller Bay has been emphatically rejected by Bass Coast Shire Council.
Councillors unanimously rejected the application.
But while residents and conservationists celebrated the refusal, potential tourist developers would have been confused by the result.
The application was the first major development submitted under the new Bass Coast Unlocking Rural Tourism (BURT) Strategy, adopted in March, which encourages large-scale tourist ventures in the farming zone and designated Special Use Zones at Newhaven, Ventnor and Kitty Miller Bay.
The development proposal explicitly referred to the BURT strategy, noting the resort would capture new tourism activities and markets – in this case parties of Chinese tourists – as Bass Coast tourism recovers from the Covid pandemic.