Tamworth Oaklands Estate stalled by native grass and water

The developer sought to reduce lot sizes of stage three from two hectares to one hectare, after an environmental trigger halved the available land.

Development consultant Mitch Hanlon said originally there was 80 hectares of land for stage three, which was intended to be a “large-lot subdivision”.

“However, stage three – land once used for fodder oats – now contains sufficient native grassland to trigger the environmental thresholds,” Mr Hanlon said.

“This means that for every one hectare of grassland, three hectares has to be set aside. Only 120 hectares of similar grass could be found in the northern hilly section of the site. Applying the one-to-three rule, we now only have slightly less than 40 hectares to develop.

“If we could have larger lots, we would, that’s a given.”

A report by council staff recommended rejecting the request, listing a number of reasons why, with the main concern around water constraints. The estate is connected via the Nundle Road pipeline, which has limits on the total number of connections it can handle.

“Reducing the minimum lot size of properties which would connect to the Nundle Road pipeline will result in an increase in the number of properties which would need to connect to the pipeline,” the council's report stated.

“Given the limitations on pressure and flow in the Nundle Road pipeline, an increase in the number of possible water connections cannot be accommodated by the water supply system.

“Therefore, any increase to the number of lots would compromise the existing water supply.”

The developer also had to fork out $1 million for a water main to connect the site to the pipeline.

“Lot sales from stages one and two have proceeded, but the income from that does not cover the capital costs,” Mr Halon said.

“The income from stage three was meant to cover the cost of the water main, to at least allow the development to break even.”

Cr Russell Webb said he felt for the developers and wanted to give them “the benefit of the doubt”.

“This biodiversity act that’s come in to play over the past few years has caused this council some hellish pain,” Cr Webb said.

“It’s a joke what it’s done to this region. If we look out at Moore Creek, we can see some of the development that has been stalled and stopped out there.”

Despite voting in favour of the deferral, Cr Juanita Wilson supported the recommendation of council staff.

“It’s appropriate to give the developer the opportunity to the discuss the issues,” she said. “However, I don’t think this needs to be a long deferment.”