While many of its buildings sprawling across the four-hectare site have been designed to carefully nestle into the Merri Creek valley's settings, the centre's managers argue a proposed $25 million apartment block a developer wants to build next door would jar badly with the bucolic scene below. The apartment building would be twice the height of any other in the locality and, says chief executive Cinnamon Evans, “tower over CERES and the Merri Creek valley”. Developers Lucent Capital would build the 75 apartments on a 3500-square-metre site next door that is now used for offices and to park limousines. Designed by architects Clarke Hopkins Clarke, with interiors by Austin Maynard Architects, apartments in the project would start from $560,000 for two bedrooms. The land, for which Lucent will pay more than $8 million, is covered by rules protecting the Merri Creek's environmental significance. Ms Evans said any project needed to respect these.

Planning expert Rod Duncan is acting for CERES, and is also on its board. He argues recent proposed changes to rules for the area, approved by Moreland Council and now before Planning Minister Richard Wynne, make the site totally unsuitable for intensive development. Instead, only "incremental" development of the land ought be allowed, he said. Lucent Capital has gone to the state planning tribunal over the project, after Moreland Council failed to make a decision on the project quickly enough. Volunteers build CERES Environment Park in the 1980s. Credit:The Age

On Friday, despite CERES' protests, council officers issued a report supporting the apartment plan. The officers found Lucent Capital had responded adequately to concerns that had been raised about the project. This Wednesday, councillors will have to decide whether to support their own officer's recommendation, or fight the project at the state tribunal. Lucent’s managing director Panos Miltiadou said his company had cut the number of units in the development from 100 to 75, and made other changes asked of it. Mr Miltiadou said that he accepted CERES was a special community-run organisation standing up for what it believed. He was less positive about residents opposed to his plan, saying they simply didn’t want any change. “They just don’t want it near them; it’s a not-in-my-backyard thing,” he said. An artist's impression of the plan for a six-level apartment block to be built next to CERES Environment Park. Credit:Lucent Capital

He said his company's proposal was a high-quality development, especially when “compared to some of the rubbish you see out there”. Mr Miltiadou said the project’s only real impact on CERES was overshadowing the car park in winter - thereby affecting a solar charging panel for electric cars. “We’ve offered at our cost to move it the other side of the car park where it will get more sun,” he said. “Other than that, essentially it doesn’t affect their amenity.” Unless a resolution can be found to the stand-off, a hearing at the state planning tribunal will be held in November. The site of the proposed development on Sunday. Credit:Paul Jeffers