The developer behind the rezoning, Ms Carley Nicholls, claims to have received a favourable hearing from Matthew Guy when she briefed him on the scheme at a "kitchen table meeting" in her home months before he controversially approved it. Nicholls purchased the property based on the rezoning decision and subsequently sought to sue Mr Guy and have his original rezoning decision reinstated. In defence Guy stated in court documents, that he acted "in error" in rezoning the land but had relied on the advice of ministerial staff. He says he overturned his decision after learning that the Bass Coast Shire Council opposed the extension of town boundaries at Ventnor. Guy denied discussing the Ventnor project with Ms Nicholls or even knowing of her interest in the property. Legal proceedings terminated in August 2013 with a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement with taxpayers footing the bill. In October 2013, the Victorian ombudsman George Brouwer decided to launch an investigation to address Guy's decision to rezone the Ventnor site, against the original advice of his department, the department's lawyers, the local Bass Coast shire and an independent planning panel. The settlement cost Victorian taxpayers $2.5 million plus costs, for a total of more than $3.5 million, documents reveal. Senior lawyers had told the government that it should have paid a maximum of $250,000 plus legal costs. Confidential Government documents show Mr Guy ordered the multimillion-dollar payment despite repeated legal advice from a number of senior lawyers that the government had a strong case, and there was little or no grounds for a damages claim against it. "This may be winnable @ law but this is a political fight and it is unwinnable," Mr Guy is quoted as saying in confidential notes made by the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office in July 2013. In early 2014, Guy overruled his department to block the release of freedom of information documents about the botched rezoning of farmland on Phillip Island. In March 2014, Mr Brouwer found that Mr Guy was ultimately responsible for the rezoning decision and that he had refused to hand over important documents requested as part of his investigation However, Mr Brouwer also found that Guy was unaware that his advisers were acting in his name when asking for the planning department to change its advice. During his tenure as Planning Minister, Matthew Guy became known for approving a large number of high rise buildings apartment towers in the CBD and Southbank, and for rezoning swaths of land at Fishermans Bend, Footscray and North Melbourne for high-rise development.