Eleven community members presented to Mitchell Shire Councillors at a special Questions and Hearings Committee on Monday 30 August.
Following the first round of consultation on the Broadford Structure Plan in 2020, Council's Planners reviewed the document and made proposed changes to the overall direction.
The changes took on board concerns raised in a petition and submissions back to Council through the Engaging Mitchell Process.
The proposed changes include:
Proposed Mount Piper and Jeffreys Lane area
- In the proposed plans, the significant vegetation, hilltops and valleys are protected from future development. An additional 250-metre-wide buffer from Mt. Piper is in place to preserve the ecological values in the area. The number of residential lots in the residential precinct in its ultimate build out will be substantially reduced and as a result, the block sizes are larger. This will help with development staying in touch with the rural character of town - a strong feature of the feedback we received during community consultation.
Strategic Infill Site Precincts
- There has been an increase in open space with an additional 4700 sqm proposed. Lot numbers have also been reduced from 41 lots to 24 lots which will result in increased lot sizes.
Proposed Broadford Town Centre
- Within the Town Centre precinct the full closure of Powlett Street has been removed, key development sites closer to Railway Station added, the Council officers identified as a key site for community uses and strengthened pedestrian connectivity between Gavan Street and High Street.
The Pine Plantation in Broadford was also a key point of many submissions. In response Council also reviewed and put forward an alternative proposal in the Draft Broadford Structure Plan for this location.The Broadford Pine Plantation consists of four hectares of land made up of two sections of unreserved Crown Land which is currently managed by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
This land was originally part of the Broadford Common and part of the Land was subsequently used for a Gravel reserve under a Temporary Reservation back in 1919.
The Temporary Reservation ended in 1930. Under the School Endowment process the land was provided to the Education Department for use as a plantation, also called 'permissive occupancy', and this explains why the land is locally known as the old Broadford School Pine Plantation.
Since then, DELWP have advised Council that the space is not needed. The land was first identified as surplus by the Department of Treasury and Finance in the early 1980s however the Shire of Broadford objected to the sale and argued that the land should be retained for Community use.
There is no evidence that the land has ever been owned by the Broadford Paper Mill nor was gifted to the community by the Paper Mill.
The Proposed Draft Structure Plan will be put forward to Councillors at an Ordinary Council Meeting for discussion in the future.
