B-Doubles transporting 37,000 square metres of soil along an already deteriorating Kerr Road is just the first concern residents have about proposed development in Thurgoona.
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Thurgoona Park North, a 428-lot residential development on Kerr Road, will be voted on by Albury Council in coming months.
The application includes a roundabout at Table Top Road 150 metres south of Ettamogah Road – of interest to resident Ken Luke.
“There’s concerns about the increased traffic without proper planning for infrastructure and access,” he said.
“Council has changed the ball-game; they’re creating high-density housing in an area that was always planned to be low-density housing.”
At a community meeting on Thursday, Albury Council town planning team leader David Christy said there were no immediate plans to upgrade Table Top Road.
“As far as I’m aware, there’s no improvements in the next couple years’ budgets proposed,” he said.
“In regards to fixing up the current condition of Kerr Road … our engineers have in this year’s budget to do some more work.”
Roads and Maritime Services, the Office of Environment and Heritage and the NSW Rural Fire Service will be among organisations to comment on tree removal, fire risk and the like before the proposal goes to a council vote.
But as mum Jess Barker pointed out, the community will be relying on council to validate their concerns.
“Something council should consider … is (having less than 1 per cent of public space) is a safety risk, because children will play in the creeks if there’s nowhere else for them to play – it’s a drowning risk,” she said.
Flood was also a hot topic at the meeting – Thurgoona Community Action Group co-chair Arthur Latta said there was a known risk for the southern section of the block, where developers planned to cut and fill.
“What they intend to do is put limited culverts in the access road and store the storm water behind the access road to make up for the restricted creek downstream,” he said.
“That’s a very unusual way to try to store water, because if that’s ever exceeded, it will go over the access road.”
Mr Christy said developers had “made the statement that no additional impacts upstream or downstream on private land were identified”.
“We are still looking through the information they’ve provided, but that’s the statement they’ve made to council,” he said.
Mr Christy welcomed submissions, which close on January 20, and said a third information session would be held at council chambers from 6pm on Monday, February 13.
