Planned rezoning raises concerns

WESTERN Downs Regional Council is updating its planning scheme for the region, but not everyone likes the changes.

HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED: An aerial photograph of Chinchilla taken in 1929. A proposed amendment to the Western Downs Regional Council planning scheme will see the rezoning of Chinchilla land to low- and medium-impact industrial land, allowing industry closer to residential areas. Picture: Contributed

WESTERN Downs Regional Council is updating its planning scheme for the region, but not everyone likes the changes.

Part of the proposed amendment includes rezoning Chinchilla land to low- and medium-impact industrial land, allowing industry closer to residential areas.

Chinchilla resident Shay Dougall is unhappy with the changes and said medium- impact industry could accommodate a "wide range of industrial uses that are likely to have potential for off-site impacts” under the zone code.

"So it's just, as usual, the Western Downs Regional Council are making ridiculous changes with no consideration to the locals.

"The end of that report (the amendment) says that they want to change what is currently low impact into medium impact, they want to increase the area that's available ... all to attract high-impact and hard-to- locate industries, that's their objective.

"So what will come with that is noise, dust, traffic.”

Mrs Dougall said despite living almost next door to what would be rezoned as industrial land, she received no official notification.

In a statement, council said it was "committed to enabling the economic growth of the region and delivering better liveability for our community”.

Western Downs councillor Donna Ashurst said the council's priority was to support local prosperity.

"When we brought in the new planning scheme back in 2017, we committed to ongoing review. Our current planning scheme is sound, but we know that improvements are needed from time to time to keep it relevant for our community.

"We genuinely need to have more land to support the growth of industry and jobs in our region.

"All affected property owners have received letters from council explaining what the changes mean, and we've had some really constructive talks so far.

"It is important that council has a solid plan in place to manage the growth and change of our region, while maintaining the qualities which make the Western Downs special,” Cr Ashurst said.

Public consultation for Amendment 1 of the planning scheme was to end on Friday, November 30, but in a post on the Western Downs Regional Council Facebook page on Thursday morning, the deadline was extended to December 14.

"Western Downs Regional Council wishes to advise residents that submissions to the proposed Planning Scheme amendments have been extended to Friday 14 December 2018,” the post said.

"Submission forms can be found on Council's website at www.wdrc.info/western-downs-planning-scheme or at a Customer Contact Centre.

"Submissions can be handed into any Customer Contact Centre or sent via email to [e-mail].

"For further information, visit Council's website or call 1300 COUNCIL (1300 268 624).”