RESIDENTS surrounding Newstead Bowling Club have asked for any future development on the site to complement surrounding housing.
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In Friday’s Central Western Daily, club chairman Gary Norton said members believed the site, excluding the heritage-listed homestead and cedar tree, would be developed into prestige housing.
The 8300 square-metre site is listed as R1 general residential, which allows dwelling houses, boarding houses, residential flat buildings, tourist and visitor accommodation, seniors housing and hostels.
Non-accommodation uses including indoor and outdoor recreation, childcare centres, information and education facilities, kiosks, neighbourhood shops, vet hospitals and places of public worship are also permitted in the zone with consent.
According to Orange City Council mapping, no height or floor space ratio limits exist on the site, however the development control plan on residential development states development must be of a comparable bulk and scale to surrounding developments and can occupy no more than half the site area.
Any application would be subject to assessment.
Orange and District Historical Society treasurer Phil Stevenson said development was inevitable, but he preferred any development to fit in with the streetscape and the heritage homestead.
“Until you see the design, you don’t really know,” he said.
“[The streetscape] is what we crow about and put in our tourist brochures - it’s so important.”
Kite Street resident Scott Gilbank said inappropriate development had been passed before.
“There’s a development that runs alongside Newstead and the townhouses are so close that you would be able to hear your neighbours snoring,” he said.
“It depends whether they go with their hearts or their heads - unfortunately, most go with their heads, make a disaster of it and move on.”
Newstead member Tony Smith’s property adjoins the site and he said he hoped for visually-appealing buildings if townhouses were ultimately planned.
“We’d like it so we’re not looking at something hideous - well landscaped, well built and well designed,” he said.
Fellow resident Margaret Audley said a visitor from Western Australia once called Kite Street the nicest street in Australia and she hoped developers would be inspired to keep it that way.
“It’s got to be better than a Colorbond fence,” she said.
Stephen Townsend, the agent who sold the property, said he understood the buyer would work with the heritage listing and the character of the surrounding area.
“You look at the architecture of Kite Street, you’ve got to be a bit careful there,” he said.
danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au
