Clarence Valley Council will consider a planning proposal to build 16 prefabricated residential buildings at the Yamba Business Park, to house 128 highway workers. The proposal was considered at yesterday’s Environment, Planning & Community Committee meeting and will tabled at next week’s council meeting for a decision. Each of the eight-bedroom buildings includes a living area and kitchen, while a common laundry, covered recreational area and car parking are incorporated into the 1.15 hectare site at Fairtrader Drive. The report to council states that no “additional shared facilities, such as a canteen, gymnasium and the like, which are commonly provided in many such developments in other contexts (eg mining)”, are proposed. As a result, the compound’s “residents will need to source most of their recreational and living needs independently from the community”. The proposal has been lodged by the land’s owner, Kahuna No.1, and construction company, the McFayden Group, which has won previous contracts on the highway upgrade. The council officer has recommended conditional approval of the proposal, pending the amendment of the Clarence Valley Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 2011 “to enable ‘workforce accommodation’ to be permitted with consent for a period of four years [to the end of 2020] on Lots 3-9 DP 1139117, Fairtrader Drive, Yamba”. Residential developments are prohibited in areas zoned IN1 – General Industrial. The council officer advises: “Given the temporary nature of the proposal, the amount of vacant industrial land in Yamba and the [slow] historical rate of uptake … it is recommended that the planning proposal has merit in the circumstances and be referred to the [planning] Gateway…” The report to council suggests that the proposal could reduce the “potential for housing market imbalances” within the valley’s existing residential areas “due to the significant infrastructure upgrades underway”.