Western Sydney residents whose property will be acquired for new airport slam ‘disgusting’ offer

When Scott Lutiger received the state government’s acquisition offer for half his parents’ property near the new Western Sydney Airport, he broke down and cried.

“$468,000 for seven-and-a-half acres. It was just absolutely disgusting,” he said.

Mr Lutiger’s parents, Walter and Evelyn, moved to Bradfield in 1970 where they raised their children and ran a business.

“I married the girl across the road and we bought a place across the road,” Mr Lutiger said.

“Knowing our families were here, we just wanted to spend time with them.”

Walter is now 88 years old and needs full-time care for dementia, while Evelyn died in September after a long battle with cancer.

Last year, to help fund Walter and Evelyn’s medical expenses, Scott made a hardship application to Transport for NSW (TfNSW), asking the agency to buy his parents’ six-hectare property urgently.

The government had already chosen the land as the site of a potential transport corridor to the new Aerotropolis.

It also planned to build stormwater infrastructure on the property, making it undesirable to developers.

In October, TfNSW told Scott the application had been approved, acknowledging that the family was going through a “very difficult time”.

Facing mounting costs, the Lutigers were eager to receive the government’s offer before last Christmas, but it never arrived.

In correspondence seen by the ABC, they were repeatedly assured over several months that the offer was just around the corner.

Then in April, the Lutigers realised why TfNSW had been stalling.

“We had no idea this court case was coming,” Scott said

That case was a matter in the Land and Environment Court brought and lost by Goldmate Property, a developer that owned land in the Aerotropolis, against TfNSW.

The decision drastically reduced the potential value of land being acquired by the government near the new airport.

Residents are ‘devastated’

Roberta Ryan, the independent community commissioner for the Aerotropolis, said the government appeared to have made a “deliberate decision” to delay acquisitions so it could take advantage of the court’s decision.

She said hundreds of residents could be affected.

“These people largely have lived in rural isolation, without water and sewer, [with] very little connection to government,” Professor Ryan said.

“This, of course, is devastating news.”

The Lutigers’ six-hectare property benefits from enterprise zoning, which could have seen it fetch close to $30 million from a developer, had the government not planned to build on it.

However, the Goldmate decision allowed the government to disregard the more valuable zoning.

Mr Lutiger said the government eventually offered the family just 40 per cent of the property’s potential value, calculating the price based on the land’s former rural zoning instead.

Ms Ryan said TfNSW’s conduct was “grossly unfair”.

“This isn’t really a humane way for government to act,” she said.

In need of money to pay for his father’s care, Scott Lutiger proposed to sell half the property.

Transport for NSW then offered just $468,000, because it believed the Lutigers could still sell some portions of the remaining land.

Mr Lutiger said the process had taken a “huge emotional toll”.

“We’ve just been walked all over,” he said.

On top of his mother’s death and his father’s illness, Mr Lutiger’s wife Joann has been diagnosed with cancer.

The couple also helps care for Joann’s father, who has advanced Parkinson’s disease.

‘It’s manifestly unfair’

When asked about the Lutigers’ case on Sunday, Premier Chris Minns said that while he was not aware of the specifics, it was “reasonable” for a landowner to expect to be paid the market value of their property.

“We want to make sure people are made as whole as possible, while at the same time building the infrastructure the city needs.

“There’s often a conflict about what the government thinks the land is worth and what the owner of the land believes,” he said.

Flo Mitchell, a lawyer specialising in compulsory acquisitions, said the government may try to use the Goldmate decision to save on property acquisition costs in areas outside the Aerotropolis.

“[Right] now, the biggest problem is in Western Sydney, because that’s where the biggest growth is,” she said.

“But in other areas where there is rezoning happening … other people could very well be impacted by this.”

On Monday, Goldmate’s appeal against the government is listed for judgement.

If it loses again, Ms Mitchell said politicians should consider changing the law to protect landowners from having their property values eroded.

“It’s manifestly unfair.”