Wagga City Council has paved the way for a centrally located building to increase its height from 16 metres to 25 metres during a proposed redevelopment.
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Councillors voted at Monday night's meeting to amend the local environment plan to allow increasing the height of a building at 63-65 Johnston Street, next to the Woolworths car park.
Councillor Rod Kendall, who co-owns the building, declared a pecuniary interest and vacated the council chamber while debate took place, as did Councillor Kerry Pascoe, who is planning a similar amendment on one of his own properties in the near future.
Wagga resident Fiona Ziff, a long-time critic of Cr Kendall and his property interests, addressed the council about the Johnston Street proposal before the vote.
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Ms Ziff said she supported the height amendment but asked whether Cr Kendall was acting in the "best interests of the community", accusing him of failing to declare a conflict of interest when voting for a similar proposal last year.
At a council meeting on August 10, 2020, councillors voted to approve an LEP amendment to raise the height of the development planned for the Morgan, Murray and Forsyth streets block.
Council minutes reveal that Cr Pascoe vacated the chamber because his company was developing a similar project in the CBD, while Cr Kendall stayed in the chamber and voted for the amendment.
Cr Kendall dismissed Ms Ziff's accusation as "just mischief", saying he hadn't been planning to apply to increase the height on his Johnston Street property in August last year.
"I didn't have a conflict of interest ... If she believes I've breached the code of conduct then she should raise them in an appropriate manner [and] formally submit a code of conduct complaint," he said.
On Monday night, councillor Vanessa Keenan asked Ms Ziff how she knew that Cr Pascoe would have a conflict of interest ahead of the meeting in time to include it in her "pre-prepared speech".
In response, Ms Ziff said she "rang around" before the meeting.