Cudgera Creek food hub neighbours rally against proposed development
A group of Cudgera Creek residents are fiercely objecting to a proposed $72 million food hub for several key reasons. Here’s why they’re against the development.
Tweed Heads
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Colleen Toovey and Mick Owens fear the peaceful lifestyle that drew them to Cudgera Creek will be drowned out by a proposed development right across the road.
Ms Toovey is part of the newly-formed Cudgera Creek Protection Alliance that fiercely objects to the $72.2 million Agricultural Food Hub proposed for Cudgera Creek Rd.
The proposed development is designed to be a place used for production or packaging and storage space for the Northern Rivers food industry.
However the Cudgera Creek group have concerns about how a development of such a large scale will impact their rural area.
Their key concerns are pollution, run off into Cudgera Creek, noise, traffic and flood risk.
Bangalow development
A similar development was proposed in Bangalow in 2017 by Chase Investments, which was directed by Anthony, Gregory and Daniel Elias.
Anthony and Daniel Elias are the directors of Cudgera Creek Developments Pty Ltd, which is the company behind the new development.
The Bangalow proposal was for three 5000sq m rural industrial buildings that could be doubled in size to 10,000sq m in later stages, as well as a 3000sq m rural industry building, three rural industry buildings of 800sq m and a 1000sq m food excellence facility.
By comparison, the new development planned for Cudgera Creek is for 19 sheds over 53,930sq m of manufacturing space.
Anthony Elias said the Bangalow proposal was discontinued at their request because at the time they could not negotiate a suitable access for the traffic management plan with the NSW Roads and Maritime Services Department.
Traffic, location, pollution
Julie Stevens, who lives on Reserve Creek Rd, said the new proposal would be better suited to Chinderah or Murwillumbah where there was industrial zoned land.
However Mr Elias said the proposed development fitted in the zoning parameters of the Cudgen Creek site, despite its primary production and rural landscape designation.
The development could bring up to 210 truck movements per day with access on Reserve Creek Rd, which has raised alarm bells with resident Frank Iseppi.
He said the access road off the highway into Cudgera Creek and east to Pottsville and Hastings Point was not suitable for so many truck movements and had concerns for school buses and cyclists that regularly used Reserve Creek Rd.
But Mr Elias said the site was specifically identified as an ideal location due to its proximity and direct access to the Pacific Motorway.
“Traffic will leave the motorway, enter the site and leave the site and go back onto the motorway,” Mr Elias said.
“Local roads will be upgraded to accommodate these movements.”
He said the site would be built over 10 years with a one-way entry and exit for heavy vehicles and a two-way main entry for lighter vehicles.
He said it would also have 450 parking spaces including five parking with disability spaces and additional space for bicycle parks.
Pollution was a major concern for the residents who relied on tank water.
They had concerns about how the emissions from the trucks and food processing would impact not just their tank water quality, but the water in Cudgera Creek.
Noise, visual amenity, light pollution and noise were flagged as concerns along with the potential flooding impact in an area that was prone to flash flooding.
However Mr Elias said the site and its operations were expected to have minimal impact on the residents and the wider community.
He said safeguards included loading and unloading inside the produce sheds, landscape and acoustic barriers, no refuse collection or heavy vehicle handbrakes between 10pm and 7am, fixed grates and acoustic treatment on all the plants.
Economic impact
Cudgera Creek group members are concerned the development will have a negative impact on the property prices, not just on the west of the highway but east to Pottsville and Hastings Point.
Resident Glenn Woods said a large part of the area’s economy was based on property investment.
“If Pottsville gets the reputation of ‘that’s that place with that weird massive development’ that’s going to effect house prices,” Mr Woods said.
“The potential economic impact for people who own houses in town is huge; perception of an area is all part of that.”
He also said there wasn’t demand for the development in the Tweed, where the main agricultural activities of sugar cane and grazing already had established wholesale processes.
Mr Elias said the $72.2 million investment would create about 443 jobs through construction and operational phases.
Ongoing he said the project could generate up to $313.9 million a year in overall economic output – $120.1 million a year in gross value add and $49.9 million a year in income based on the combined direct and indirect impacts.
“We have a number of regional producers who have indicated a keen interest in taking up a tenancy to expanding their operations,” Mr Elias said.
Have your say
Due to the investment value of the development, the final approval will be decided by the Northern Regional Planning Panel.
However the public can make submissions to the Tweed Shire Council until December 15, 2021.
To make a submission visit www.datracker.tweed.nsw.gov.au or email tsc@tweed.nsw.gov.au
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