It comes three weeks after the last council rejected the 12-bed Riverina Recovery House at 199 Gurwood Street. 

Developer Debbie Cox hopes predictions Saturday’s election will result in the most progressive council in decades prove true.

The passionate proponent will begin lobbying councillors after they’re confirmed on Friday night, before lodging an official appeal. 

“I thought the previous council was quite responsive, but the last council meeting floored me,” Mrs Cox said. 

“It wasn't the decision I had expected.

“I will be talking to the new councillors to make sure they’re on the same page and aware of what we’re proposing.”

Mrs Cox will simultaneously lodge an appeal in the NSW Land and Environment Court, which she will withdraw if the new crop of councillors overturns the refusal. 

Council candidate Tim Koschel, who is highly likely to be on the next council, was among the concerned parents who ran the facility out of Lake Albert nine months ago.

But Mr Koschel – mayor Rod Kendall’s running-mate – recognises the need to address the city’s methamphetamine plague.

“The Riverina Recovery House is something Wagga needs, but the location makes the decision hard,” Mr Koschel said. 

“When it was planned for Lake Albert it was going over the road from my daughter's school and I was against it.

“My main issue was that it was in proximity to schools, but I’m open to the idea of a residential location.”

Labor’s Vanessa Keenan, another candidate with a better than even chance of being elected, also supports RHH being built in a residential zone but has reserved her judgement on the suitability of Gurwood Street.

“I’m open to it being in a residential area because it’s about reintegrating RHH residents back into the community,” Ms Keenan said.