SPRING Hill resident Tony Jones is living in a state of uncertainty as he waits to hear if a proposed B-double route will cut his in half.
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The road is part of Orange City Council’s Orange Airport expansion proposal, which includes a rezoning of almost 318 hectares to a mix of industrial and business land.
Mr Jones built his family home on the 20-hectare property eight years ago, and runs a herd of 30 black angus cattle on the “beautiful grazing land.”
He said since he received a letter from council six weeks ago regarding the plans, he has been living in limbo, unsure if and when he will lose his home.
“As soon as I found out about this I sold my bull and a heap of cows,” Mr Jones said.
“I work 14 hours at the newsagency [TJ’s Downtown Newsagency and Blackcat Tobacconist] and when I got home, I’d work four or five hours on my home, putting in new fences and everything.
“I just come home now and mow the grass, that’s about it. If I knew when I built that I’d find out eight years later a road would be going straight through my house, I wouldn’t have gone through with it.”
The proposed expansion will meet the north-western border of Dean Fredericksen’s 40-hectare Huntley Road stud, and the cattle farmer said there were many parts of the plans he was worried about.
“I‘m concerned about any water run-off that will come from the airport will impact the ground water in surrounding areas,” he said.
“I’m also concerned about the loss of amenities, that is Huntley Road.
“I don’t know how many more people will be travelling along it in the future, but looking at it logically if they have to expand the road, they will be knocking on everyone’s doors to buy more land for that.”
He questioned the planning process of the proposal and said the lack of detailed information provided by council kept Spring Hill residents in the dark.
“There is no solid documented plan sitting behind this,” Mr Fredericksen said.
“If you can understand the reasoning behind the proposal, then maybe you’d be less against it.”
“We’re [Spring Hill residents] not anti-development, but we’re against this because we don’t know anything, we have nothing to form an educated opinion on.”
The proposed expansion is scheduled to be up for public exhibition in May.