A SUBDIVISION at Kurrajong knocked back by Council has won its appeal in the Land and Environment court, and will now go ahead as long as it gets a water licence from IPART and approval from Council to carry out sewerage work before construction begins.
The 37-lot subdivision at 67 Kurrajong Road attracted around 50 objections from residents and community groups.
These included Kurrajong Baptist Church, which said the reduction from the original 52 lots to 37 was still too many, and Kurrajong Community Forum.
PRJM Pty Ltd v Hawkesbury City Council was heard in the Land & Environment court, with it upholding the appeal on August 15, subject to 80 conditions.
The community title subdivision includes the construction of a new private road, a drainage system and installation of a water recycling facility to treat sewage. Two lots (Lots 1 and 21) would be used for these services and the remaining 35 lots would be used for residential development and range in size from 708 square metres to 1355sqm.
The sewage issue was one of the main bones of contention between the developers and Council.
The proposal was first lodged in December 2015 for 52 lots with 50 homes. The developers also lodged a much less dense proposal of eight lots. Both proposals were knocked back by councillors on issues such as impact on native wildlife, (with Council’s report noting there were 22 threatened species on the site), as well as the impact of runoff from the building process entering the nearby Little Wheeny Creek, concerns about the proposed pumpout sewage management method and increased traffic in the village.
Kurrajong Road resident Tracey Hawkins was against the proposal and told the Gazette last year it was a contravention of the original purpose of the block. She said the 3.25ha block was originally part of explorer William Lawson’s 500-acre grant at Kurrajong.
“It was passed down through his family until his great-grandson sold much of the land to the Lamrock family,” she said.
“They sold it on to Mr Malcolm, who in 1927 created ‘Malcolm’s Woodburn Estate’. As part of that subdivision, the block was bought by the State Government for future use as a park or for a village hall.”
Another couple who objected said the block was home to possums, lizards, wallabies and a koala, as well as parrots, bowerbirds, whipbirds, kookaburras and cockatoos.
A developers’ spokesman told the Gazette last year “it’s very hard for people to break in to the housing market and we’re providing good homes on good land at a reasonable price”.
