They signed a petition at last night’s community meeting asking Heritage Victoria to modify its strict and impossible guidelines so the development can go ahead.

The plan is to subdivide the heritage buildings into individual ownership on the 106.5-hectare site, while still providing community access.

One of the developers, George Fendyk, said residents at the meeting had urged him to keep fighting and not lose hope.

“This list of conditions is not a permit, it’s dribble,” he said.

“There are so many holes and it states that we have to submit a plan for this and a report for that, and that’s before we even get a permit.

“If we do all of these reports and by the time we get all of this done, it’s going to be years.

“The worst thing about this is that we are under their power, they have the right to say they are not happy and then we go all over again.

“It’s not as if we have set black and white rules to follow and that will be it, there’s no end to it.”

Mr Fendyk said the appeal, with a hearing scheduled for March, would be the last chance to save the site.

He aims to collect up to 500 signatures.

Before the meeting started, Beechworth businessman Greg Clydesdale expressed that the development was an important issue, not only for Beechworth, but for the entire Indigo Shire.

“I am interested in what Heritage Victoria is saying that is going to put a barrier in front of George and Geoff doing what they have always said they would do, which is to make sure this site is handled sympathetically and ensuring community access,” he said.

“When it was up for sale the Friends of Beechworth and the whole Beechworth community was interested in ensuring it stayed as a community feature, rather than a private feature.”

During the meeting Eldorado’s Lachlan Buchan proposed the government fix up the buildings of those which the developers could not afford.

“I reckon if the government can give grants to private enterprises like B and B’s, then why can’t the government do up the buildings that you can’t afford to?” he asked.

But Mr Fendyk rejected the idea, saying that government grants could run out and the government in power could change.

Another resident Lyndan Blackman stood up at the meeting and thanked Mr Fendyk and the other developers for putting their dedication and finances into the project.

Her speech received a large applause from the crowd that included Indigo mayor Bernard Gaffney, Indigo chief executive Gerry Smith, and Indigo Shire councillors Roberta Horne and Barb Murdoch.

Cr Gaffney has welcomed the appeal over the conditions.