Central residents are ramping up their fight against a planning proposal to amend the Local Environment Plan as submissions close on Friday.
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Property management company Damasa has submitted a proposal to amend the Wagga LEP 2010 to reclassify community land, rezone land, increase building heights and remove the floor-space ratio provisions.
About 20 residents living within the vicinity of the subject site on Morgan, Murray, Forsyth and Docker streets identified their major concerns on Saturday afternoon.
Increasing building heights to 35 metres, current traffic congestion, worsening parking and fears the community's expectations will not be met rounded out as the top fears held by community members.
Community representatives have met with Wagga City Council twice and group leader Chris Roche argued they are not receiving the whole truth.
"This LEP change will set a precedence for the rest of Wagga; it's not just one building, or one block, it's the whole of Wagga," he said.
"We've been voicing our concerns, but that's all we're really getting; all we're asking for is a public hearing to get everything out in the public ... the developer and council can explain the situation."
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Resident Jim Doig said parking was his biggest issue and a new development would put further strain on an area that is already limited.
"If you're buying a one-bedroom unit and there's a couple in it, virtually every couple has a car each, so that's two cars per unit, then go to two and three-bedroom units," he said. "You have to look at the sale-ability of it and the market for it to see whether it makes sense and, quite frankly, without decent parking it doesn't make sense.
"Council owes it to the ratepayers to have a public meeting and give the developers the opportunity to speak and talk about the issues and get some feedback ... so they can actually look at something that will benefit the whole city."
Another resident Peter Keith said he would welcome an opportunity to see how this proposal would fit in with the city's population growth.
"If we appear to be gainsayers we'll have little to no chance of success, but if we identify what the issues are and hear it in a bigger master plan context, then I believe we've got a chance," he said.
Director of regional activation Michael Keys said there has been "strong" interest in submissions and all information available is in the open.
"We'll provide a summary of all the issues and submissions to the developer or proponent and ... ask if they can make further representation," he said.