Dubbo boarding house proposed for Elizabeth Street

A push to build a $574,000 boarding house in Dubbo has angered locals who say they were kept in the dark about the who it would be used to accommodate.

A proposed $574,000 boarding house development in West Dubbo has made local residents anxious and led to allegations they have been asked to give feedback to a council despite having little information.

On September 24, a development application to build a seven-bedroom boarding house on Elizabeth Street was lodged with Dubbo Regional Council by He and Wang Consulting Pty Ltd.

Steven Coffee has been kept in the dark about a development proposed for directly next door the home he has owned for 21 years. Picture: Ryan Young

Some neighbours in the street were notified of the proposed development in a letter sent to them by the council on September 28 and they were given an October 17 deadline to provide feedback on the proposal.

Steven Coffee owns a home next door to the proposed boarding house and he said based on documents lodged with council, he felt residents had been told “jack sh*t” about the proposal.

“The term ‘boarding house’ is very broad spectrum,” Mr Coffee said,

“What sort of clientele it will attract?”

Nowhere in the DA lodged with the council does it say who will run the proposed boarding house and who the intended users of the development will be.

When The Dubbo News emailed the contact address listed on the DA to ask questions about the proposal, a spokesman said “best I didn’t comment without the owner’s consent, your email has been forwarded to them and they will be in contact if required”.

Despite being told neighbouring residents had been approached and provided comment about their concerns, neither the spokesman or the owner chose to comment.

Mr Coffee said he and other neighbours he told about the proposal were worried “undesirables” would move in.

“There’s no information,” he said.

“Everyone in the whole street has got the DA now, it’s their street too and just because I’m next door and getting pissed off, doesn’t mean the whole street shouldn’t know.”

Alison Armistead also wants more information. Picture: Ryan Young

Widow Alison Armistead purchased a home directly opposite the proposed development two months ago after leaving the family property.

While not outright opposed to a boarding house being built opposite her, she said more information was needed.

“The DA doesn’t address anything, it tells us we are going to go from a three-bedroom residential property to a seven-bedroom unit boarding house,” Mrs Armistead said.

“There is nothing in the DA addressing security risks … it may never happen, I appreciate that and it’s why I’m saying it’s potential because it may be that we are panicking because this is unknown … it has caused anxiety and concern.

“If you have homeless people living there, if you have people who are recently released convicts from prison you are looking at a different social dynamic in this area. You are looking at potential problems, I’m not saying they will occur, what I’m saying is there is a potential and one of those is of course drug dealing.”

According to Mrs Armistead, the DA failed to address a range of potential concerns residents had.

“I know you cannot specify who can and cannot rent a room, but it concerns me that there is no obvious facility for an on-site manager so if there were issues that concerned the local residents or event the occupants there is nobody for them to refer to,” she said.

“I don’t have an issue if they’re going to house homeless people, they have a right to have a roof over their heads, domestic violence victims also have a right to have a safe place but then so do I and I’m older.

“I think the council should have asked a few questions, maybe they did, maybe they got the blank too.”

Shaun Williams has taken it upon himself to consult with the neighbourhood. Picture: Ryan Young

Father-of-five Shaun Williams has lived on Elizabeth Street for two decades, a few doors up from the proposed development.

“I found out from Steven because I didn’t get a copy of the letter,” Mr Williams told The Dubbo News when approached for comment.

“Calling it a boarding house gives you the impression it could be for drug rehab or rehab from jail or that sort of nature of stuff, which is something we definitely won’t want in a street full of families and that.

“On the other hand, researching it, I saw that a lot of them are better described as micro apartments, just cheap accommodation for singles and couples which I’m all for. The problem is we don’t know.”

Mr Williams said anti-social behaviour had been a problem in the past on Elizabeth Street and residents were happy drug houses were longer directly around them.

“We’ve kind of just got the street sorted and now we’re facing this,” he said.

“The next block up is known for drug users and all that sort of stuff and it’s a very cheap, sort of dodgy accommodation up there.

“We don’t want that filtering down here, we already had a bad enough time with foot traffic coming through, we’ve had numerous times where people have walked through from up there and they’ve broken into cars and stuff like that.”

The deadline for feedback on the proposed development is October 17. Visit council’s website for full details about DAs.

DEVELOPER RESPONSE

In the hours after the above story was published, Richard He from He and Wang Consulting responded to questions asked by The Dubbo News.

Below is his response.

“The appropriate planning process was followed and standard advertising of the development application was done according to council‘s normal process. The neighbours will be consulted as part of council’s established assessment process. The proposal retains the original cottage to preserve the streetscape character. A single storey detached block is proposed at the rear of the site which will be a set up of high end co-living micro apartments that have their own bathrooms and kitchenettes similar to other unit developments on the same street, for example at 31 Elizabeth Street. Being single storey, it has no mid-winter overshadowing impact on adjoining properties.

Similar to other unit developments on the same street, the management is to be conducted by a local real estate agent that fills the property with standard long term 12-month plus leases to professionals in the local area. These would be doctors, nurses, tradies, engineers and over 55-year old single females who are the biggest growing demographic of homelessness in the country.

These are local conscious owners who have a realisation that the local area lacks affordable accommodation for professional singles and couples in particular accommodation for those people that are essential service workers. They have a history of providing good, long term and high end accommodation. The funding of the proposal is yet to be determined. However, the current proponent is Australian citizens in which case, local finances will be provided if the owners decide to proceed with the development.”