Village idea wins a fan

KATINA CURTIS

SUBMISSIONS about the amended proposal for a retirement village at Jamberoo have been flooding into council, with the deadline for comments closing today.

A council spokeswoman said more than 400 submissions had been received by the start of the week and “a late flood” was expected.

She said there was a mixture of people for and against the proposal for 195 serviced residences and a 90-bed aged care facility.

Among those supporting the proposal were Hazel Lewis and her husband Phil, who have lived on a one-acre property in Jamberoo for 30 years.

Mrs Lewis described the proposal as “a dream come true”, saying she and Phil had been looking at similar retirement villages elsewhere, but were reluctant to leave their home, friends and social activities.

“There’s no way I would move into a unit down in Blue Haven having lived on an acre,” Mrs Lewis said.

“At the moment there’s no choice. Either you move away and find something similar to the retirement village or you move to Kiama and stay in the units or you stay here and pay for someone to have all the maintenance done.

“I’ve been up to (Crighton’s village at) Tea Gardens and was very impressed.”

She said that while the project certainly was big, it was low density and would not be “like at Albion Park”.

“They are normal houses with their own garden, well spaced out, but all the landscaping and the maintenance of the outside of the house, etcetera is taken care of by the owners,” she said.

She thought it was a shame the Jamberoo community had split over this issue, because it was usually very united.

However, she felt it was necessary to look to the future.

“(The opponents) forget that in 20 or 30 years they’re going to be in the same situation,” she said.