At its July meeting, Berrigan Shire Council voted in favour of a motion to approve development application No. 48-25-DA-DM for a 323-dwelling manufactured home estate at 32 Burma Rd, Tocumwal.
Among the six councillors who voted in favour of the motion was Cr Katie Ngatokoa.
“I think the perceived fear is that it’s all going to happen at once, and we don’t have the services to support it,” Cr Ngatokoa said, during an extensive debate on the motion.
“But I think the fact it is actually a staged development gives us the opportunity to grow with the development, as opposed to trying to fend it off because it’s all happening at once.”
But the motion wasn’t without its dissenters, with councillors split 6-2 in favour of the recommendation to approve the application.
Cr Stringer spoke against the motion, saying it wasn’t going to get his vote, no matter what.
“It’s just wrong for the area — completely,” he said.
“I can’t go to the golf course without people jumping all over me about this.
“It’s not going to attract young families. It’s going to attract older people, like myself, and we need to attract young families, if the town is going to survive and grow.”
Cr Stringer also raised concerns about the impact of the housing estate on the future of the nearby Tocumwal Aerodrome, arguing that residents of the proposed estate may eventually organise to close it down due to noise complaints.
“Once you put a housing estate in there, and 300 people joining together to form a group, they’re going to come at it,” he said.
Cr Hannan addressed Cr Stringer’s arguments, saying he would like to argue “hell and a handbag” to anybody that wants to build near an airport and then wants to think that they can shut it down.
“I take the point that there’s some existing infrastructure that Cr Stringer has raised, but at the end of the day, if you’re going to develop and live near an aerodrome, you understand fully that it is an operational aerodrome,” Cr Hannan said.
“We’ve been getting complaints about activity near that aerodrome for the last 25 years, and at the end of the day, it is a functional airport.”
The council agenda stated the proposal had been assessed in accordance with Section 4.15 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and was considered to be consistent with the objectives of the RU5 – Village and RU1 – Primary Production zones under the Berrigan Local Environmental Plan 2013.
The agenda noted that 29 submissions were received through the NSW Planning Portal after the DA exhibition opened on the public portal in March.
Of those submissions, 27 objected to the application, while only two were in support.
8°C