2015-04-28 Planning and Organisation Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                      28 APRIL 2015


1.3. Application Incudes Grounds for Support
The application acknowledges the proposal must demonstrate sufficient grounds to gain
approval to justify the development’s conflicts with relevant planning instruments. Details
and discussion of the grounds are included in Section 3.3.3 of this report.

2.    SITE DETAILS
2.1. Site Description
The site is an almost triangular shaped 6.77ha allotment located on the southern fringe of
Cooroy’s urban area. It is surrounded by road reserves, having frontages of approximately
480m to Myall Street, 280m to Ferrells Road and 320m to the Bruce Highway. The land
slopes moderately toward a watercourse running through the south eastern portion of the
site. The overall fall across the development area is approximately 9 metres.

The site is within the Lake Macdonald catchment. Creek flows enter the site from pipes
beneath the highway and leave via pipes under Myall Street that release to the Cooroy Golf
Course. The riparian areas of the creekline are vegetated with predominately native flora of
species characteristically found in the Six Mile Creek and Mary River locally. The north
western edge (facing the proposed development area) has a narrow band of vegetation, in
some places only one tree deep to the top of bank. The creek channel is deeply incised and
contains a number of in-stream habitat values including riffles and ponds. Scattered weed
species exist - predominately Camphor Laurels, Small Leaved Privets and some lantana.
The vegetated portions of the site provide suitable habitat for a variety of birds, bats, small
mammals, reptiles and amphibians, including the Giant Barred Frog (listed as vulnerable)
and Tusked Frog. The site and the Myall Street road reserve also contain significant habitat
trees that provide a range of nesting hollows suitable for cockatoos, gliders and possums.

The site is zoned Rural and is substantially cleared for pasture but not currently used for
rural purposes. Since March 2015 the Cooroy to Curra highway upgrade contractor, Lend
Lease, has used part of the site for storage and operational purposes associated with the
upgrade works.

The location of the site in relation to its surrounds is shown in the images below:




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