Kiama Council will revisit the proposed rezoning and development of 123 Golden Valley Road at Jamberoo at its next general meeting.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As part of the rezoning review process, the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel (JRPP) has determined the proposal should proceed to ‘gateway determination’ stage, despite strong opposition from Jamberoo residents and council rejecting the proposal to rezone the land in December 2016.
Council has been invited to be the Relevant Planning Authority (RPA) and is required advise the JRPP within 42 days if it accepts this role.
Jamberoo resident Graham Pike is not in favour of the proposal to rezone the land from Rural Landscape to Low Density Residential.
“Several times last year, the Jamberoo people voted very strongly not to have this continue, now they feel the NSW government is not listening,” he said.
“The road in is basically single lane, and at the moment there is no proposal for widening. The panel says the developer night be required to widen it, but it’s very difficult to see how it can be widened, when it’s got a major electricity sub-station on the side of it and you would also have to cut into people’s existing properties.”
Every time we’ve gone to a meeting or rejected rezoning and development like Golden Valley Road or Drualla Road, we have made the point we’re not opposed to development, we’re just opposed to bad development.
- Graham Pike
Mr Pike strongly opposes the development at Jamberoo which has taken place in recent years, saying it threatens the character of the village.
“Chapel Hill Estate is the after effect of very poor planning and development, in the heart of Jamberoo,” Mr Pike said.
“Clearly it is totally inadequate in terms of everything you would need in a proper housing development.”
The Wyalla Road residential release divided Jamberoo community groups, when it was approved in 2015.
“It is just another conventional subdivision with conventional project housing, I think with 58 lots and again they’re all subject to multiple dwellings,” Mr Pike said.
“Your minimum 800 square metre size allowed by council, can come down to a living space of 275 square metres with three dwellings.
“The western boundary of Jamberoo is fragmenting, not only the rural landscapes immediately surrounding Jamberoo, but world-class food producing agricultural land.
“We will end up looking like the western suburbs of Sydney very quickly.”
In August 2016, the state government repealed a stipulation within the Illawarra Regional Environmental Plan (IREP) No 2, which limited development of land to that which fell within the existing village.
“As soon as that boundary was removed, there were applications for rezoning agricultural and rural land and environmentally protected land on both the eastern and western boundaries of Jamberoo,” Mr Pike said.
“It will destroy the village character, destroy the rural landscapes everyone chooses to come here and enjoy and destroy the multi million dollar tourism in the Kiama Municipality and Jamberoo.
“If the Golden Valley Road development is allowed it will extend Jamberoo significantly towards Kiama and we can already see Kiama houses coming this way.
“We’re cutting to pieces what is a real gem for Australia, a rural village with some of the world’s richest agricultural land, the rolling green hills and the farmland tourists say they come specifically to enjoy, only 130 kilometres from one of the largest cities in Australia. We’re cutting it to pieces.”
Mr Pike said he wasn’t ‘opposed to development, just opposed to bad development’.
“Jamberoo people have made it clear because they’ve have put up alternatives and we’re waiting to have community input into the Jamberoo specific development control plan,” he said.
“Every time we’ve gone to a meeting or rejected rezoning and development like Golden Valley Road or Drualla Road, we have made the point we’re not opposed to development, we’re just opposed to bad development.
“That’s what’s happening in western Sydney and Albion Park – urban blight with all the inattention and lack of infrastructure, public services, bus services and schools.
“That is what we don’t want.”