Developer James Arsenikakis threatens legal action against Adelaide City Council over new St Andrew's Hospital building Artist's impression of the new St Andrew's Hospital building on the corner of Hutt St and South Tce. WHAT do a developer, a top silk, Mike Rann's former media boss and Adelaide City councillors have in common? They're all players in a legal stoush over a single-storey addition to a new St Andrew's Hospital building. Cambridge Group director James Arsenikakis first enlisted former premier Mr Rann's chief media adviser Jill Bottrall to spruik the addition of a fourth level to the building, under construction on the corner of Hutt St. Mr Arsenikakis then had Brian Hayes QC, who is chairing a State Government review of SA's planning system, represent him at the council's Development Assessment Panel last week. But the high-powered lobbying went pear-shaped when the panel rejected the proposal for lacking carparks, despite council staff recommending approval after independent consultants found there were enough on-street parks nearby and good bus access. The decision has sparked legal threats and claims the panel process was a "debacle." Mr Arsenikakis is considering "all legal options" to fight the decision as well as action against two panel members, councillors Anne Moran and Michael Henningsen, who the builder claims should have declared conflicts of interest while voting down his plan. Mr Henningsen is a surgeon who does some of his work at St Andrew's, as does Ms Moran's anaesthetist husband, but neither are hospital employees. Mr Arsenikakis is demanding the panel reconsider his application and that the two councillors remove themselves. But neither councillor is budging, and Ms Moran is threatening a defamation suit against Ms Bottrall for claiming on Twitter she had inappropriately "cited her husband's workplace parking issues to refuse a planning application concerning her husband's hospital." In a statement issued through Ms Bottrall, Mr Arsenikakis' lawyer James Levinson said Ms Moran also appeared to have ignored the council's "green" transport strategy when assessing the project, which includes features such electric car charging points, bike racks and touch screens showing exact bus arrival times. "You have got to feel some sympathy for people trying to invest and develop anything in the city with these sort of mixed messages coming out of the Town Hall," Mr Levinson said. He also raised concerns about allegations by Mr Henningsen that illegal building work had taken place on the site without approval. Ms Moran rejected the conflict of interest allegation, saying: "If my husband or Mike Henningsen had a commercial relationship with the hospital, you'd think we'd have voted for it. "Using Brian Hayes is like wheeling in a Ferrari to a pedal prix," she said. Ms Moran dismissed the transport strategy, dubbed Smart Move, as an "aspirational policy document" that did not trump the council's Development Plan on which she had based her vote, rather than any personal anecdotes from her husband's experience. Mr Henningsen said he had no direct relationship with the hospital and council officers had backed up his claim that work had "quite clearly" started on the framework for the fourth level. "If they are trying to bluff or scare me, I am not the sort of person who reacts to that," he said. Ms Bottrall, who was not at the panel meeting, tweeted Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood to say it was "a debacle" that "gave a terrific display of why investors should steer clear of (the) CBD." She later said that for councillors to use personal parking anecdotes to reject applications against the advice of professional planners was "really embarrassing for the City of Adelaide and makes a mockery of the whole planning system." The panel's presiding member John Hodgson said the application had been properly assessed and was not supported because of "a significant shortfall in the amount of car parking." "It is disappointing that the applicant has inappropriately and incorrectly singled out individual DAP members through media statements that rely on misquotes (from the panel meeting)," he said. Even more disappointing is that the applicant has chosen to use lobbyists to voice concerns rather than addressing the planning issues which gave rise to the panel's decision. The first three floors of the building, including a pharmacy and chemotherapy centre, are almost complete. The fourth floor was to be for administration workers.