The History
The Ardel Site was originally Crown land reserved for possible use by the Spastic Centre. The NSW State Government allowed them to sell it to a private developer without any environmental assessment being made. It was purchased by Ardel Pty Ltd for $3.35m. Warringah Council rejected an application for medium density housing on the Ardel site in 1994. Ardel appealed to the Land and Environment Court but lost the appeal. Ardel submitted a modified application in 1996 and this was also refused by Warringah Council. The bushland was given National Heritage status in 1997.

The development went before the Land and Environment Court in November 1997. The court reserved its decision in 1998 because owners consent was required from the Crown to construct an access road through the bush to the site. The court hearing continued when the road access matter was resolved, but Warringah Council (under delegated authority) made a surprise withdrawal from the case on the Friday before Christmas and allowed the court to grant approval.

It was expected that additional environmental data and legislation would be presented. This included details of the Duffys Forest vegetation community known to exist on the site and listed in July 1998 as "endangered" and "likely to be come extinct". NSW State Fisheries had previously advised that the proposed works in the creek would destroy natural creek habitat and block fish passage and were therefore not in accordance with the Fisheries Management Act. The works consist of digging up over 60m of the creek to construct a Water Quality Control Pond and two road bridges. Fisheries concerns were not presented to the court.

Through April and May 1999, Warringah Council was working through the "conditions of consent" issued by the L&E Court. The Committee had  understood that they would wait until all related approvals were granted before giving them the go-ahead. They were expected to wait for Fisheries to clarify the situation of approval of the pond in the creek, but in May 1999 they gave Ardel the go-ahead without this approval.

Fisheries refused to approve any work in the creek without a Statement of Environmental Effects (SEE). Ardel prepared this in late 1999. If the pond was not approved or modifications were required to the design or location, othermatters such as the soil and water management plan would have to be resubmitted Fisheries eventually issued a permit allowing them to excavate the creek.

Council took the matter to the Land and Environment Court in January 2000 but lost because they failed to prove that the creek was natural. Council refused development approval for buildings on the site in 1999 and this matter went to the Court in February 2000. Council lost.