The future of a Yackandandah land parcel added timeliness to housing discussions held in the town hall on Thursday night.
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If the community is united and constructive and is willing to work with the developer on their terms, then you can achieve amazing outcomes
- Andy Fergus
More than 100 people attended the Innovative Housing Forum organised to explore sustainable accommodation options that increased community connections.
Attendees heard initial discussions had begun regarding the development of a large property near the outskirts of Yackandandah.
Melbourne-based urban designer Andy Fergus, one of five presenters at the forum, said the major project offered both opportunities and challenges for the community.
“If Yackandandah can become more sophisticated in the way they organise and manage their growth, they become a test case for every regional town,” he said.
“You can demonstrate on a small scale, then you can show others how it can be done better.
“What came out of Thursday night is a lot of people were quite excited about this idea of preparing an alternative community plan.
“If the community is fragmented and adversarial, they’ll get nowhere.
“If the community is united and constructive and is willing to work with the developer on their terms, then you can achieve amazing outcomes.”
Cheryl Graham, one of the forum organisers, said people who attended the evening identified co-housing, shared housing and energy efficiency as areas of interest.
Providing feedback when councils review their planning schemes was raised as an important step.
“For me the ultimate outcome is if the community could have influence (on) the criteria that is used to judge developments, that we could have better outcomes,” Ms Graham said.
“Not only better design of individual houses but better design of new developments.
“We’ve got some people with some skills that we will get together and work out where to go from here.”
Mr Fergus praised the commitment, shared sense of identity and passion for Yackandandah he and his co-presenters witnessed.
“We’ve probably given 30 talks in the last 30 months and that was the most inspiring group of people we have ever spoken to,” he said.
- More property: The Border Mail Domain