Orange City Council to consider draft budget on Tuesday night

Orange City Council will consider the draft budget at its online meeting on Tuesday night where councillors are expected to place it on public exhibition.

Of the funds, $4.5 million is expected to be set aside in 2022 for a double-storey car park, plus another $200,000 to convert the former CF Williams building site into an overflow car park for Orange Civic Centre.

Half a million dollars has been allocated for trails around Mount Canobolas.

Money will be spent this year on the multipurpose sporting complex, with $10 million to be spent this year and $15 million in 2021.

Another $6.5 million is set to be spent on Orange Civic Theatre, mostly in 2023.

The planned $20 million Orange Regional Conservatorium and planetarium project remains in the budget and is still waiting for a state government contribution.

Also waiting for grants is the Future City CBD upgrade, with $30 million budgeted during the next two years, but only $10 million coming from the council.

The council has factored in a $2 million loss in revenue in the first quarter of the 2020-21 financial year due to the cost of providing childcare, closures of the civic theatre, visitor information centre, function centre and aquatic centre, fewer people flying into Orange Regional Airport and waived parking fees at the Ophir car park.

The council is also set to discuss a 37-lot subdivision on the Escort Way - the development will extend from a T-intersection with Silverdown Way.

The homes will be located within a scenic protection zone in the Ploughmans Valley, along a prominent ridgeline.

"It is considered that the development that will occur on the ridgeline... will significantly impact on the skyline from large areas of the existing area of the city to the east and southeast, and from the more rural and rural residential land to the north and west," the report said.

Where the subdivision is planned...

"The subsequent visual and landscape amenity concerns... will require a specific set of design parameters."

Lots will have a 2000-square metre minimum - those located along the ridgeline will have to appear single-storey from the road, cover no more than 35 per cent of the site and be half screened by landscaping.