The Presbyterian Church property trust has been given permission to go ahead with a small subdivision in Wingham.
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Councillors agreed to the development application (DA) to subdivide the Moon Street site during the MidCoast Council ordinary meeting on Wednesday, April 17.
The developer plans to subdivide the block into three Torrens title lots for future housing.
An existing church, manse and ancillary structures will be retained.
The original plan, for a 10 lot development, attracted 11 community submissions.
However, since the development was amended and reduced from 10 to three, the application essentially satisfies some of the issues raised in the submissions, council development planner Heather Fardy reported to councillors.
Community concerns
Some of the community's concerns were traffic flow, increased traffic hazards around the preschool and increased traffic, parking issues in Gloucester Road, Moon and Fotheringham streets, loss of koala habitat vegetation, site history, drainage, Aboriginal and European heritage.
"Wingham is a heritage town of homes with gardens/yards," one protester wrote.
"The average size of this development is 550 squares which is a handkerchief block.
"It is a mistake to cram as many buildings or dwellings as possible onto an area of land just to maximise a developer's profits."
Another wrote: "The subject allotment was registered on July 25,1974 and donated to the Presbyterian parish earlier. My understanding prior to purchasing in Wingham was the allotment was not permitted to be built on. The site contains a manse which was constructed in 1898 and is a strong part of the history of this town."
The proposed development will be in the wider public interest with provision of appropriate additional residential lots, Ms Fardy said.
She said the proposed development satisfied relevant planning controls and would not have any significant adverse impacts on the wider public interest.
"The size and scope of this is fairly small," Cr Paul Sandilands said.
"We are talking about two household lots and the objections raised were partially based on the possible use of 10 lots which was in the initial application that was gotten rid of in favour of just the two," Cr Sandilands said.
The objections which were raised in some quarters concerning vegetation and parking have been addressed in the body of the report, deputy mayor, Alan Tickle said.
Jeanene Duncan
Jeanene has more than 40 years experience as a regional and rural journalist starting at The Land Newspaper. She also worked for Stock Journal Newspaper (SA), McPherson, Fairfax newspapers and Rural Press, and contributed to various magazines.
Jeanene has more than 40 years experience as a regional and rural journalist starting at The Land Newspaper. She also worked for Stock Journal Newspaper (SA), McPherson, Fairfax newspapers and Rural Press, and contributed to various magazines.
