Residents near the planned site for a domestic violence crisis centre have called for a different entrance into the site than what is proposed in a development application before Orange City Council.
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And they are seeking to have up to four adjacent sites proposed for housing turned into a greenspace buffer.
Ploughmans Hill Community Group spokesman Alex Irwin said the residents accepted an alternate site for The Orchard was unlikely but they wanted the planned entrance near their homes on George Weily Place to be scrapped.
Mr Irwin said the entrance should come off either the Northern Distributor Road or The Escort Way.
He said traffic numbers in the area would be too high.
“It is inappropriate to the point it would be dangerous,” he said.
Mr Irwin said residents were concerned pedestrians, bicycle riders and parents with prams would be at risk.
“Perhaps the easiest solution would be the Northern Distributor Road,” he said.
Mr Irwin said access off the council-owned road would be at the same distance from an intersection as one off the NDR into the Bunnings store in north Orange.
He said the residents were upset their interests had not been taken into account.
MAP: Where is the proposed site ...
Councillors Glenn Taylor and Kevin Duffy attended a residents’ meeting on site on Sunday after being invited at a council meeting where the DA was approved last week.
Crs Taylor, Duffy, Sam Romano and Scott Munro left the chamber and abstained from the vote.
Cr Taylor said they had since forwarded a rescission motion to overturn the approval which would be debated at the next council meeting on February 19.
He said he wanted council to ask Roads and Maritime Services to provide access from The Escort Way or have council to agree to access off the NDR.
Cr Taylor said a left-turn access lane off the NDR “would solve the problem.”
He said calls for housing sites to be turned into greenspace were not viable.
“I am a realist. It is too valuable to become a giveaway for the community. I don’t think it will happen,” he said.
Cr Joanne McRae, who voted for the DA, said she was disappointed she, and other councillors, had not been invited to the meeting to get more information about residents’ concerns.
“If you’re not invited what does it say about democracy in our city,” she said.
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