Geoff Helisma|
Councillors unanimously endorsed amending the Clarence Valley Local Environmental Plan 2011 (CVLEP), to facilitate the construction of a service centre on the eastern side of the southern highway entry/exit for Maclean, at the June 22 Clarence Valley Council (CVC) meeting.
The planning proposal has been referred to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment for a planning gateway determination.
The report to council stated that “the proposed siting of a highway service centre in the South Maclean locality has been the subject of regional planning since 1995”, however, the rehabilitated site of the former Maclean Sewage treatment plant was rezoned “from SP2 Special Purpose Infrastructure to RU2 Rural Landscape, consistent with the surrounding zoning,” in 2018.
Staff noted that “no submissions were received through community consultation on that proposal, and this site was subsequently changed to the RU2 zone”.
“Decontamination and rehabilitation of the site to residential standard was completed prior to resale.”
The applicant has requested a change to Schedule 1 of the CVLEP, to enable an additional use on the subject land, the construction of a highway service centre.
“The objectives of the RU2 Rural Landscape zone provide scope to require a service centre and ancillary signage to fit in with desired character of this site near the entrance to Maclean and within the surrounding rural landscape,” the report to council stated.
“The proposal requires importing approximately 156,000m³ fill material to the site, or around 7,000 truck and dog loads.
“…These impacts will be assessed by Transport for NSW, regarding the Pacific Motorway network; construction traffic and their impacts to the road network can be conditioned at DA (development application) stage and assessed under dilapidation reports, once all fill sources are more formally determined and agreed.”
A DA will need to be submitted if the planning proposal is supported and finalised, at which time councillors will make an “informed decision to approve or refuse the planning proposal … particularly based on community feedback and detailed considerations”.