Central residents have finally had their pleas for a public hearing answered after weeks of lobbying Wagga City Council to host one.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
About 30 residents have been opposing a planning proposal for the Morgan-Murray streets precinct to amend the Wagga Local Environmental Plan.
The proposal seeks to reclassify community land, rezone, increase the building height restriction and remove the floor-space ratio.
A community workshop has been scheduled for November 12 and a public hearing on November 18 at the Civic Centre.
Resident Chris Roche said it was important their concerns were heard.
"It's good that now council has heard our concerns and are willing to sit and listen in a public forum and get a better understanding of how we feel," Mr Roche said.
Central resident Anne McGregor said she hopes the meetings will have positive outcomes for all involved.
"We hope ... that we can come to an amicable agreement with all parties involved," Mrs McGregor said.
"I think [council] is accepting of the location and how it is going to affect us."
However, both residents said they did not know what the difference was between the two meetings.
"The community workshop is separate to, and in addition to, the public hearing on reclassification of council owned land ... which is a statutory requirement," said Adriaan Stander, council's strategic planning coordinator.
Follow the story:
"The public hearing only relates to the reclassification of the public land located at 205 Morgan Street and not the remainder of the land that is included in the planning proposal.
"The public hearing will be facilitated by an independent chair who will make a final recommendation to council with respect to the reclassification."
Damasa developer Daniel Donebus admitted he was reluctant to attend the meetings due to misleading information that has circulated.
"We're very concerned; on one hand we need to be transparent, but we also need to consider how to deal with what has been quite some disturbing tactics by people who are against the council proposal," he said.
"The fact that some residents are deliberately attempting to mislead others, through defamatory comments, in order to promote their cause means we have to be very careful.
"We'd like to deal with things in the most amicable way that is available and I'm not sure whether attending public meetings is the best way to handle that."
He said building to 15-storeys was never planned and is "completely contrary" to what is possible under the planning guidelines.
Mr Donebus said the firm has been left in an "awkward" position from scare tactics that go against what is proposed for the site.
"If someone is scaring you, saying that you won't ever be able to park in your street, you'll be shaded by those buildings then that would be concerning," he said.
"Unfortunately, most of that is inconsistent and just pedaling to misinform people.
"We've already done our best to show some comfort in our concepts with shading diagrams and parking solutions are built into it and they are on public exhibition."