Wagga Wagga City councillors have voted in favour of the co-living housing development despite community concerns. Image: Supplied.
Wagga Wagga City Councillors have voted unanimously in favour of a new $8.7 million, 50-room development in Edward Street, despite several concerns.
The four-storey development is set to be a temporary co-living space close to both the city’s hospitals.
As reported by Region last week, the project faced community concerns about the water tables underneath the proposed site, with more than 10 submissions from the public opposing the development application.
However, the major concerns from councillors on the night of the decision focused on traffic control and the removal of trees on and around the site.
As part of the development, 20 trees have been identified as needing to be removed. Of the 20, 17 fall under eight metres tall, allowing the developer to remove them without council approval. Two of the remaining three have been classed as being in poor condition, leaving the final tree to be removed, subject to the development being successful.
While voting in support of the overall development, Cr Jenny McKinnon led the discussion during the meeting about the dangerous precedent the removal of trees at the site could set.
“I will be voting in favour [of the development], but I do want it to be known that I do have concerns about the ongoing deficits in our tree canopy cover,” she said.
“We need to have some real consideration in the long term about how we’re going to deal with all of the developments that are happening all over Wagga, where there is a lot of concurrent tree removal happening.
“All of it is perfectly legal, but having an ongoing and combined impact on the lessening of our canopy cover, which, in terms of our Urban Cooling Strategy, is not at all helpful.”
The other topic of contention during the debate was the location of the development in Edward Street and the potential implications for local traffic.
Cr Lindsay Tanner spoke of concerns about unseen consequences of the development, including parking overflow and the leasing of car parking.
“I read the commentary around vehicles and have some concerns similar to the residents around overflow parking and so on,” he said.
“Visitors have the potential for the payment management to try and manage that through the leasing of car parks and so on. So I think there is a potential there for that to be an unseen, unintended consequence of development.
“But as a councillor, I think this is significant for Wagga because it’s a catalyst for change in the health precinct that we’ve been waiting for.
“I think that sort of change always creates tension for those who are affected most directly by it, and I think we have to be sympathetic to that.
“But I’m all for this development and strongly support it because I think it really is a catalyst for change in that precinct for all the right reasons. I think the use of the term affordable housing is a long bow, to say the very least, but the co-living outcome this delivers in the precinct is absolutely significant.”
