Sanctuary Villages Now Up for Public Comment
Date: 24-Sep-08
Author: Tim Plater
The long awaited plans for the Sanctuary Villages at Paxton/ Millfield are now on display and submissions are due on Monday October 6th.
The development by Hardie Holdings holds little resemblance to the once promised 'eco villages' and is essentially a 700 lot housing subdivision to be built in stages. The promised playing field and community hall for Paxton will not be built until Stage 3 of the project and there are no current plans to upgrade roads in the area.
At a public meeting hosted by the Greens at Crawfordville Hall at Millfield residents were opposed to rezoning of the land for the project.
The Greens have found serious omissions from the the display documents which give grounds to object to the rezoning on a number of counts. These include:
- There is no comprehensive Greenhouse gas emission study as set out in the Director General's Requirements
- There is no draft Voluntary Planning Agreement as set out in the Director General's Requirements
- There are no plans to contribute towards the conservation offsets and management plans have not been put in place.
- Some of the urban run off detention ponds are within the conservation offset. These should not be included in the conservation zone
- Much of Paxton development is within the long established Hunter Water Odour Buffer Zone. There should be no housing development in this area
The Cessnock Kurri Greens consider that there is now a vast oversupply of housing planned for the Cessnock area including a 4000 lot development at Bellbird. It is unlikely that the 100 house a year projection for Millfield Paxton will eventuate.
It is not necessary to establish this development on the fragile Congewai catchment and many residents expect to see their rural/village atmosphere degraded.
The CK Greens are urging individuals and groups to object to the rezoning. A form letter can be downloaded here along with a list of submission points if further information is needed (see links below).
Display Documents can be found here on the Department of Planning website.
Further assistance can be found at the Cessnock Kurri Greens Web Site
CK Greens can also provide a CD with all the the documents.
Tim Plater
Related Documents
- Sanctuary Villages Objection Letter 2 (52kb doc file)
This second letter is more specific to Paxton/Millfield Issues - Sanctuary Villages Objection Letter Submission (37kb doc file)
Form Letter: Sanctuary Villages Objection Letter Submission - Sanctuary Villages Submission Points (62kb doc file)
Further Information: Sanctuary Villages Submission Points
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