THE principle objectors to the Thurgoona townhouses development have floated a potential circuit-breaker to the dispute.
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Jason and Vanessa Evans, who live next door to the vacant land where three townhouses have been proposed, said during a community forum hosted by Albury Council on Monday they would accept two units on the block.
The forum was arranged after developers Jim and Julie Carroll re-submitted a development application for the townhouses after being rejected by councillors in May.
Council planning staff recommended approval of the plan, but was over-ruled.
An independent assessment of the latest development application will be carried out before returning to council later this month.
Mr Evans said he and his wife were "shattered" when the plans were re-submitted.
He said their main objection was the number of units proposed for the site.
"We paid the premium to get golf course frontage and paid the premium to build there," he said.
"Everyone else in that street to our right has two neighbours, one on each side, but in a built up area you can expect two side neighbours and a back neighbour.
"Three neighbours from our perspective is perfectly acceptable."
Mrs Evans revealed their dream home was built by Mr Carroll and had no issues about the quality of his work.
"There are already large homes with large outdoor areas," she said.
"If you put three on the block they are only getting a small outside space.
"But with two units or one house they are going to have the same scale and characteristics that are already in the area."
The three townhouse development was approved in 2007, but when it didn't proceed planning consent lapsed.
Mr Carroll and his planning consultant James Laycock also spoke at the forum.
"The current development application is almost exactly the same as the approved one," Mr Carroll said.
"The only reason why we changed it was we thought we could do a better job on the setbacks."
