David Gilbert’s wife, Trudy, owns a share of 23 hectares of land off Old Bomen Road and intends to subdivide the property into housing blocks in spite of protests from heavy industry in nearby Bomen.

Councillors were “sick to the stomach” when they approved the project last week, but Mr Gilbert said his family had made considerable concessions to earn building permission.

“We appreciate industry has concerns, but it has to be balanced with the rights of property owners,” Mr Gilbert said.

“This land has been in our family for 50 years – we were there first.

“Industry needs to live up to the standards the law says they have to operate under.”

Mr Gilbert, who lives across the road from the planned development, allayed business’ fears new residents would complain about shunting trains at the proposed Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics (RIFL) Hub to be built one kilometre away.

“We have been trying for three years for approval and going back even longer than that we've been patiently waiting for industry to clean up their act,” he said.

“There was a gentleman's agreement between residents and council that we would be granted approval once industry cleaned up their act. 

“Teys has a history of breaching standards but fortunately for all concerned they've upgraded their plant and now meet standards.

“New residents are no more likely to raise red flags than current residents, in fact less likely because they'll be further away.”

Planning consultant Garry Salvestro, who represents a number of Cartwrights Hill landowners, threw cold water on speculation the subdivision would curb the local economy.

“No doubt manufacturing is substantial employer, however it's not the only industry that makes Wagga tick,” Mr Salvestro said.

“Cartwrights Hill was designed as a residential neighborhood like Estella before industry rolled in.

“These aren’t people intent on lining their pockets at any cost, they’ve reduced the amount of blocks from 230 to just 23.

“Land development and housing is a considerable part of the local economy and losing 90 per cent of those blocks means less builders and lost income.”