Alpine Council to explore possibility of heritage overlay for Bright trees

At its meeting on Tuesday, March 28, the council agreed to engage an expert consultant to assess the heritage, cultural, arboricultural and landscape values associated with the trees identified for potential removal by developer Deague Group on Great Alpine Road.

The recommendation also focused on the trees' contribution towards the value of the avenue of elms to help make an informed decision about the possible application of an overlay.

Chief executive Will Jeremy said the council would pay more attention to the trees given there was potentially new information that wasn't available to the public when the development was approved in July 2022.

"We believe it's important for council when they make a decision on this subdivision permit application to make it on the basis of all the information that's available to them has relevance to that planning decision," he said.

"It's a two-step process. The first is to assess the heritage, environmental, agricultural, and landscape value and the second part is to understand the legal implications of what we've learned."

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Mr Jeremy said the growth forecast of Bright and Porepunkah to 2041 revealed approximately 1250 new houses were required.

"What we've got at the moment is 738 houses and that includes the Deague development, so there's a shortfall of about 500 houses for us to meet the state government's requirements to plan for growth," he said.

Councillors and senior officers fielded more than 20 questions from the public in relation to the Bright Valley development and said responses to frequently asked queries would be posted on council's website.

"There is a lot of misinformation out there and I really urge you all to arm yourself with the knowledge firsthand, not third or fourth hand because things do get misconstrued," Cr Katarina Hughes said.

"We're listening, we're not ignoring you. There are many different things that have to happen in order to get different answers for people that are asking different questions."

Alpine Shire Council noted the petition, started by concerned resident Leanne Boyd in February, and acknowledged the importance of the trees to the community and visitors.

Ms Boyd and around 35 others met with Mr Jeremy in Bright earlier in March and a major concern was the fact no environmental audit of the land previously used for tobacco farming had been undertaken when it was rezoned to residential in 2015.

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