The first meeting of the Local Planning Panel was held yesterday (Thursday June 11) with a panel member suggesting Central Coast Council needed to look at making sure occupiers of homes and businesses affected by a development application were sent advice and not just the owners of the property.
Professional panel member Stephen Leathley made the observation as the panel dealt with its first development application – a telecommunications tower at 103 Victoria St, East Gosford.
The panel heard criticism that nearby residents and businesses had not been consulted about the tower.
East Gosford Bendigo Bank manager Michael Bell was the first registered speaker to address the panel which had only two items on its agenda.
He had three minutes to speak while the applicant had 15 minutes as per the code of meeting practice to reply.
Bell spoke on behalf of East Gosford business people and residents as well as the local school.
He said business people would be sitting under this tower up to 10 hours a day and residents for even longer.
“There was already one tower in the area, what would be the implications of two,” he asked, noting that the council had declined a development application for an Optus Tower at Allan Davistown Oval at Wyoming.
Speaking for the applicant, Mark Cavanagh, from the Aurecon Group, said the electro magnetic energy (EME) report showed the maximum levels of 5.21 were way below the 100 per cent level which was still considered safe under Australian Government approved guidelines.
At the nearby school the level was down to 1.84 which was something like 50 times lower than was considered safe.
The height has been minimised as much as possible but there was a technical need for it to be higher than predominant buildings and 25 metres was considered the minimum height.
Visually it would be a slimline monopole, grey in color.
Leathley asked whether any new developments that could occur in the precinct at adjoining sites would be a problem if they went to the height allowed of 11.5 metres.
Cavanagh said that would not be a problem as the EME emitted from the antennas only and they were well above the 11.5M height.
He agreed a parking spot would be lost with the base protruding 3.5m into the space.
Chair Donna Rygate said her main issues were carparking and the “EM stuff”.
She asked if the EME was typical for sites already operational and was told yes.
Rygate, who started the meeting with a traditional acknowledgement of Country, said normally the meeting would be adjourned while the panel deliberated on its decision but, as it was being held remotely, she would now move onto questions about the second item.
But there were no questions from the panel about the two shipping containers proposed as short term storage for Pat Morley Oval at Bateau Bay.
Rygate said normally the panel would come back into the room to make their determination public but that would not happen under the remote system.
Instead, the determination would be made public by being put up on the council website as soon as possible.
The panel’s decision will be published in Coast Community News next week.
Source:
Central Coast Local Planning Panel inaugural meeting
June 11
Reporter: Merilyn Vale