THE TWEED
TYALGUM FESTIVAL OF CLASSICAL
www.tweedecho.com.au Volume 3 #49 Thursday, August 18, 2011 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au 21,000 copies every week CAB AUDIT
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Terranora housing project ‘a disaster’
Broadway comes to the Tweed
Residents fear impacts from high traffic volumes, tiny lot sizes, inadequate buffers and three-storey homes, many of them on steep hillsides. Steve Spencer
Juliette Collins, from Tweed Heads (front), Ava Le Cornu (left), Eloisa Faranda, from Currumbin, and many other youngsters enjoyed the ‘Banana Splits’ variety show at the Tweed River Art Gallery last Saturday. Photo Albert Elzinga Albert Elzinga
Tweed Valley’s 56th annual Banana Festival will hit its straps this Saturday with the traditional parade through Murwillumbah’s CBD. This year’s festival theme ‘Musicals’ will see Saturday’s parade full of characters from Broadway shows such as The Wizard of Oz
MUSIC p10
and Grease and offer roadside viewers plenty of opportunities to dress up as their favourite on-stage identities. The parade will start from Murwillumbah’s showground at midday and snake through town to end at Knox Park where the annual Family Fun Day will take centre stage. continued on page 2
Outraged Terranora residents say Tweed Council’s controversial Area-E development blueprint for 1,800 multi-storey homes on the last remaining piece of prime agricultural land in the area is a ‘disaster’ set to heavily impact on them. Concerns include impacts from high traffic volumes, tiny lot sizes, inadequate buffers and three-storey homes, many of them on steep hillsides. Council is also proposing to change the Local Environment Plan (LEP) to allow fourstorey commercial buildings up to 19 metres high in the village centre part of the project. The plan is currently on public exhibition. A pamphlet circulating in the area warns residents the development would forever change their rural living lifestyle and amenity, urging them to lobby councillors and Tweed MP Geoff Provest. The 296-hectare project, which involves several large developers, is bounded by Mahers Lane, Terranora Road, Fraser Drive and the Terranora Broadwater, will eventually house 4,000-plus new shire residents. It was once prime agricultural land but was earmarked for housing two decades ago and rezoned by the NSW government in 2007. Richard Wright, a resident of Parkes Lane for 29 years, told council’s community access sesssion last week that he had been following the evolution of the project since the 1990s and that extensive community involvement had resulted in a 2005 development control plan (DCP) for the area. This plan had provided for a transition zone of 20 metres between the housing project and the adjoining area zoned 1C Rural, a minimum lot size of 600 square metres with average lots being 880 square metres; and no access from
the project to Terranora Drive, Fraser Drive or Market Parade. But Mr Wright said the current draft plan for Area E had lots as small as 250 square metres, no transitional zone and temporary or perhaps permanent access to Fraser Drive at the southeastern end of the development. ‘Also of concern to me and residents of Parkes Lane and Market Parade is the potential high level of traffic on these steep, narrow and winding roads, based on the unlikely construction of the Broadway Parkway,’ he said.
Road through wetland The route of the parkway is controversial with a push by developers to route a portion of it through a designated wetland to create extra house blocks, which if successful would likely lead to a challenge in the Land and Environment Court. Mr Wright said the final route of the parkway was described by council planners as ‘critical, essential and paramount’ to how the land release would unfold. ‘This would have me believe that the Broadwater Parkway’s location, design, connection and construction would need to be in place before any approval of the site development works could proceed,’ he said. The road route is likely to be decided by a vote of Tweed councillors later this year or early next year. Any later, and council risks the project’s approval being taken over by the NSW Department of Planning. Another Terranora local, Michael Connelly, said he was stunned that council planners had increased the yield of lots in the Fraser Drive area by including large tracts of ‘small continued on page 2
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