Katoomba: Land clean-up to make way for disability housing
Homes for older people with disabilities could potentially be built on a Katoomba site that has been contaminated with absbestos.
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Homes for older people with disabilities could potentially rise up from the shadows of a contaminated land site in the upper Blue Mountains.
Griffin Planning has lodged an $850,000 development application (DA) with Blue Mountains Council to build nine dwellings on a block at 58 Albion Street and 62 Rupert Street, Katoomba.
The planned self-contained cottages would accommodate people aged over 55 years with a disability.
“The proposal represents a genuine opportunity for affordable and diverse alternative housing forms within an accessible location,” according to a statement of environmental effects lodged with the DA.
This is the second DA lodged for the project. The first DA was withdrawn after council advised the applicant the site was “potentially contaminated.”
Environmental and engineering consultants Envirotech has since found asbestos, lead and hydrocarbon at the site and prepared a remedial action plan that has been submitted to council with the new application.
Envirotech established the site was occupied by a motor garage and engineer in 1950 and was potentially contaminated due to fuel storage occurring on the property. The site also stockpiled a “substantial” amount of material in the 1970s and in 2007.
The remediation action plan prepared by Envirotech recommends off-site excavation of the contaminated soil to an approved landfill for the majority of the development area. It includes strategies to be implemented if there are any unexpected finds during these remediation works.
The statement of environmental effects notes remediation of contaminants from the site will result in “the restoration of the land, to be usable and functional.”
If given the green light, the project would see four 97.89 square metre two-bedroom units and five 77.4-sqm one-bedroom units built. Each dwelling would have solar panels and a water tank.
There would be seven car parking spaces including three accessible ones.
A small shack is on the property, along with a large Pinus Radiata tree and smaller exotic trees which have been recommended for removal.