Not properly made submission (late) Michela D'Addario MCU12/0184

Subject: nzw BCS 1799 MCU12/0184 Notice of Submission Michela D"Addario - Action Div 12 - (Seperate Submission sent to DA)
From: Michela F. D'Addario
Date: 2013-08-05T23:44:46+00:00
To: Cr Tony Wellington - Tewantin Office

ATTENTION: COUNCILLOR TONY WELLINGTON, 


Notice of Submission


Application Details
MCU12/0184
136 Top Forestry Rd, Ridgewood, QLD 4563
Animal Husbandry Type 2 Poultry Farm.


Submitter:
Michela D'Addario
Andrej Kadacik
15 Jorgensen Rd, Ridgewood QLD 4563


Submission:


Pursuant to the Sustainable Planning Act 2009, we the undersigned, make the following submission:


We object to the proposed development at 136 Forestry Road, Ridgewood. 


Our objection relates to information provided by the applicant and the submitters, and our own research and experience.


We believe this development will create irreversible environmental, economic and social harm to our Ridgewood Community.


Ridgewood is primarily a community of like minded people wishing to honour the principles of sustainability and wildlife protection and support. Most of us have Land for Wildlife Accreditation and are passionate about protecting and enhancing the beauty and wellbeing of the area. It is why many of us live in Ridgewood. 


Ridgewood is recognised for its natural beauty and charm.


Historically much has been done by residents to improve and care for the area over the past twenty years and this commitment continues with newer residents also. 


Within this culture and practice of sustainability, there are also residents who conduct healing retreats and have businesses offering healing and ‘eco friendly’ services on their properties. The local wildlife and beauty of the river and surrounds is core to the integrity, delivery and success of these businesses. These businesses give others the opportunity to enjoy, and benefit from, the beauty of Ridgewood.


One of the main reasons we moved into the area was because of the obvious care and passion residents had for Ridgewood. We wanted to be part of a neighborhood doing good for local wildlife and the Land. 


We have committed to caring for our property in significant ways over the coming years with an intention to also seek support from council through its Land For Wildlife Habitat Restoration Incentives and other helpful initiatives provided by council.


BlackFellows creek for instance is one of the last remaining creeks in the region to still have platypus. This clean creek runs through our property and is an integral and beautiful part of our daily lives. We are dedicated to improving and maintaining it’s health.


Visitors often comment on how quaint and special Ridgewood is with it’s majestic tall gumtrees, quiet pretty country roads, valley views and clear river. At night, the starry skies are breathtaking.


The natural beauty of Ridgewood deserves to continue to be enjoyed, protected and supported by its residents and the broader community, not disregarded and damaged.


We are following through with the environmental initiatives recommended by you the council.


The large scale farming enterprise proposed by the applicant is in direct conflict with the sustainable principles and practices of the area and council planning. And stands to do significant damage to our local environment and also affect, with the potential to destroy, the appeal and effectiveness of the more sensitive and sustainable low impact business operations in the area. 


The applicant’s proposal does not offer a win-win outcome for the residents of Ridgewood and the broader community. It is clearly a win for one resident and a huge lose for everyone else and the environment of the area. This kind of outcome is therefore unsustainable and not in keeping with the South East Queensland Regional Plan 2009-2031.


We trusted that low impact zoning of properties in our area, by our council, would not be altered just because of one person's desires. We trusted council would honour its own planning guidelines. Those development parameters are there for a reason: to protect. They need to be respected and upheld, and only modified after extensive public consultation and acceptance, otherwise they mean nothing. Most residents of Ridgewood live in the area for the reasons that are now seriously under threat from this development.


Many of the submissions have highlighted important concerns we share regarding the environmental and economic consequences of the applicant’s proposal. We wish to highlight also the very real social and emotional consequences of such a proposal.


Imagine choosing to live in a quiet area of Cooroy, on a small rural road, to then be subjected to living with 4-5 semi-trailers rattling by your place a day or with the daily stench that a Poultry Farm such as this creates? Imagine the emotional and physical impact of living in a once beautiful, peaceful and unique area made unsustainable, stressful and unhealthy, with odour, noise, environmental and visual pollution?


We were told by a friend who lived near a poultry farm operation in NSW, similar in size to that proposed by the applicant, that the stench was horrendous and travelled on the breeze for kilometres. She said the locals referred to the odour as “the smell of death” because it was so bad. The wind cannot be controlled. The wind-borne odour can easily come over the ridges and settle in our nearby valleys where many of us reside. We do not deserve such a daily reality. 


And yes we are emotional about this situation. You have our quality of life, our nature, and the intrinsic value of the area, which we care for so passionately, in your hands.


The number one issue affecting many people in the general community is chronic stress. Research shows it is the greatest contributor to health issues. You just have to look at the emotional and physical harm done to people who were part of the Traveston Dam tragedy to see the very real effects of distress and stress relating to the threat of losing a place of natural beauty that is known as home.


Currently, as residents of Ridgewood, we feel safe to ride our horses, bikes and walk our dogs on our local rural roads and we have a bus stop that sees many children picked up and dropped off every morning and afternoon. 


This sense of safety, freedom and connection to our local countryside is an integral part of our rural community lifestyle. It contributes to our wellbeing. It contributes to our sense of social connection and interaction with our environment and neighbours. It is a ‘way of being’ that ought to be repeated not deleted.


However, with the applicant’s proposal, our narrow little country roads would see semi trailers hurtling along them, turning tight corners, along with an expected increase in traffic to and from the applicant’s property of additional poultry farm staff and associated services. 


It puts us all at greater risk and creates danger, fear, stress and restriction, where there has been safety, freedom and tranquility.
 

We are most concerned at the lack of public consultation with a proposal that obviously has far reaching ramifications for not only Ridgewood residents but the broader Community. 


We are very disappointed that there has been little consideration regarding how such a proposal could impact on surrounding homes and residential businesses in the area. The value of properties in Ridgewood is reflected significantly in the sustainable and attractive natural qualities of the area. Losing these qualities will see the value of surrounding properties affected.


Changing the status of a large property from low impact to high intensive farming, when it is so close to many surrounding low impact properties that it will negatively effect, is to render the status of all those surrounding properties meaningless. And it sets a precedence for other low impact areas to be re-assessed for intensive farming and ultimately abandoned as Land for Wildlife. 


Why would Council consider agreeing to such an outcome in an era of sustainability and protection? Why would you consider agreeing to a scenario that can tear down the hard work members of your community have worked so tirelessly to create with your support? 


The majority of Ridgewood residents are an example of ordinary people successfully improving and caring for our environment. We ought to be applauded and supported for that, not overlooked and disregarded.


Please treat residents doing good with due respect, and consider our needs too.




SUMMARY OF OUR CONCERNS:



1.	The Proposal to change of material use on farm from low impact rural use to intensive broiler chicken farming.
2.	The request to level ridge tops to construct 8 x 100 metre x 16 metre sheds housing 35,000 broiler chickens for a 6 week growing cycle, rearing 1.5 million birds annually.
3.	The establishment of 40 x 50,000 litre water tanks
4.	Approximately 4-5 semi trailers (including 19 mtre B doubles) per day and other associated vehicles travelling on small sealed and unsealed country roads posing significant dangers and destruction.
5.	Birds being secured in the sheds with no access to the outdoors to the end of their life.
6.	BlackFellows creek and its fragile environment and wildlife, such as the endangered platypus, bearing the brunt of polluted poisonous runoff that will be created particularly during peak rainfall times.
7.	The proposal being completely out of scale with the area and the associated burdens it will create for Ridgewood.
8.	The associated Noise, Odour, Visual and environmental-water pollution that will be generated by this proposal.
9.	The venture is likely to involve fertiliser production and sale yet this is not acknowledged in the proposal. Fertiliser Production is not aligned with existing land use in the area.
10.	The Proposal is in conflict with existing plans, including the SEQ Regional Plan 2009-2031
11.	Poultry operations are typically 24-hour operations  -  light pollution and ventilation noise from the sheds will disturb residents for many kilometres. 
12.	Increased virulence in pathogens, especially in high-intensity poultry farming, causes health issues that can have impacts on a global scale. (H5N1, Bird flu). This development does not address in any way the impact on the local community of an outbreak of such diseases and no disaster management plan is in place. 
13.	This proposal is clearly not a win-win. It is a win-lose.
14.	Threat to businesses in the area that support and rely on principles of sustainability environmental care and environmental beauty.
15.	Threat to value of properties whose appeal is reliant on the natural beauty and sustainability of Ridgewood.
16.	The needs of the majority of residents in Ridgewood who are committed to the initiatives of Council environmental care are being overlooked and disregarded.
17.	The very quality of lifestyle is at risk for surrounding Ridgewood residents.



In Conclusion
We do not consider the proposal of the applicant to be in keeping with the spirit and practice of the majority of Ridgewood residents, or with council planning and so we urge council to uphold the existing low impact status of the applicant’s property, in line with surrounding properties in Ridgewood, rejecting the proposal in it’s entirety. 


Michela D’Addario and Andrej Kadacik
Residents of Ridgewood


“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” Elie Wiesel