By Dominique Tassell
Council has passed a motion to allow the creation of three holiday cabins in Elbow Valley.
The property at Bellinghams Road, Elbow Valley requested a Material Change of Use for the purpose of constructing three detached cabins
The subject property is 0.825 hectares in size, and is currently vacant.
It is zoned as Rural and has direct frontage to Bellinghams Road, which is a gravel constructed road.
The proposed single storey cabins would consist of a kitchenette, ensuite and outdoor bath tub, open living area and bedroom, fireplace, and deck area.
A public notification period was carried out and there was one submission received.
The submitter’s concerns were taken onboard by Council and options for dealing with these were included in the proposal presented before Council.
A neighbour raised concerns first over open fires at the cabins not being managed appropriately by visitors.
Council in response imposed a condition for a bushfire management plan to be provided for approval and to be displayed in a prominent location within the cabins for guests to view.
The condition also requests that open fire places/fire pits are addressed within the management plan.
The second concern was that a lack of fencing at the boundary of the property means patrons will not know the defined boundaries of the property and may traverse on the adjoining property to gain access to natural features in the locality, such as the Condamine River to the northeast.
In response, Council imposed a condition that a four strand rural fence to be provided on the northern, eastern and southern boundaries.
Signage should also be provided on the fence line to deter patrons from accessing the adjoining rural lot.
As trespassing is governed by legislation that is outside the jurisdiction of the requirements for assessing a development application either property owner can install their own signs on the fence.
The neighbour also raised concerns about the risk of snake bites to visitors, as the nearby Sandy Creek is the natural habitat of several venomous snakes including the Eastern Brown snake.
This would be remediated by the aforementioned fence.
The documents before Council stated that the proposed cabins were complaint with the Rural zone code, as they do not conflict with rural land uses or the natural, scenic, and community values of area.
In the Council meeting, Councillor Andrew Gale stated that he felt the neighbour’s concerns had been “adequately addressed by Council officers“.
Councillor Cynthia McDonald agreed, stating that it was a well-written report and that the neighbour supported the new conditions.
Councillor Stephen Tancred questioned the language of the document concerning the fence, asking if it was just “the language of planners“.
A staff member stated that the four strand fence is “the bare minimum that we would require from them“.
Councillor Tancred then questioned how many metres the cabins were from the boundary and whether this would form any problems.
A staff member stated that “there is a condition in (the document) about some buffering to be maintained, which will help mitigate some of the impacts that are maybe caused with the joining rural activity“.
The motion was moved by Councillor Cynthia McDonald, seconded by Councillor Marco Gliori, and moved unanimously.
