Council rejects controversial Crows Nest service station
CROWS Nest residents have succeeded in their bid to stop a controversial service station from being approved.
Toowoomba
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CROWS Nest residents have succeeded in their bid to stop a controversial service station from being approved.
There was applause in the council chambers yesterday as the Toowoomba Regional Council voted against its planner's recommendation and rejected the servo and car wash along the New England Highway, citing concerns over flooding and contamination of the region's main drinking water supplies.
Applicant Marakech Pty Ltd will now have to weigh up whether to take the matter to the planning and environment court.
Neighbouring resident and complainant Julie Kearns said she was delighted by the outcome, which comes nearly two years after the service station was proposed.
"It's wonderful - I think the councillors had made up their mind beforehand, and they weren't game to put it on the floodplain," she said.
"I think we helped, but I feel the councillors really took the lead."
Council planner Krys den Hertog laid out the planning process to get the development at an acceptable level, including extensive flood mapping and a highly-sophisticated waste chemical containment system described by an external engineer as "over and above anything we've done in Australia".
Mr den Hertog said the development initially did not comply with the planning scheme, considering the land had flooded in 2011.
"The development is inconsistent with parts of the planning scheme, including parts of the strategic framework; however there are considered to be sufficient grounds to approve part of the development despite the inconsistency," his report said.
The applicant also produced modelling to show how the effects of flooding could be mitigated.
But councillors like Deputy Mayor Carol Taylor were not convinced, arguing from personal experience about water levels in the Crows Nest area.
"As someone who went out to Crows Nest in 2011 to 2013 when the flood was coming in and showed that block of land under water, I really struggle with this," she said.
"Flood immunity measures around this site will have a cause and effect - you can model all you like (but) every single flood event is different."
Cr Ramia also made an impassioned statement about the risk of hydrocarbons entering the region's water supply.
"Can someone tell me in this room whether this council or future councils be exonerated from risking the future?" he asked.
Mr den Hertog said conditioning of the development made the risk of contamination a "tolerable risk", noting that this was a subjective assessment.
Mrs Kearns and her neighbour Ivy Bridges both got up to speak against the service station, with the former questioning the economic impacts of its approval.
"We've got a new regional development officer who is trying to keep small towns viable," she said.
"What are you doing with this? You're wiping out a small town."
Precinct Urban Planning's Paul Kelly, who spoke on behalf of the development at the meeting, said the applicant had met all of the TRC's concerns around flooding and contamination.
"We came up with a design to show as best as we could show that there wouldn't be a hydrocarbon issue at that site, and that involved putting in the above-ground fuel tanks," he said.
"We submitted the final revised (flood) study in August of last year, and then the council provided us with an email of confirmation that we had addressed all concerns to do with flood hazards."
Mr Kelly declined to comment after the meeting as to whether the applicant would consider a court challenge.