One of five house designs available in a proposed over-50s development of 200 dwellings on the edge of Narooma. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council website.
A development application (DA) has been lodged for a retirement village on the southwest edge of Narooma. The development includes 200 residential dwellings, a clubhouse and a wellness centre.
Broadlands Pty Ltd owns the 12.55-hectare sites at 27 Old Highway and 77 Old Highway and would operate the proposed land lease community. The manufactured home estate (MHE) has an estimated cost of $24.1 million. The land is zoned R2 for low-density residential development.
DA0575/24 was accepted on 3 July and submissions to Eurobodalla Shire Council close on 1 August.
People must be at least 50 to buy a dwelling in the estate. They can choose from five designs, four of which are one-storey. The dwellings, including garages and covered deck areas, range in size from 202 to 487 sqm. The average size is 250 sqm. Typically they have two or two-and-a-half bedrooms and single or double car garages.
The communal clubhouse has a non-commercial kitchen, library, hall, games room and cinema. The wellness centre has a 20-metre swimming pool, gym and sauna. Other facilities include a bowling green, pickle ball court and barbecue area. The pool has a platform lift for people with a disability. The community facilities are for the exclusive use of residents. Security passes are needed to enter the village.
The village would have rainforest-themed native landscaping. It would be built in two stages. First, the eastern part, with 122 dwellings, then the western part with 78 dwellings.
A sketch of the planned community with 200 dwellings for over-50s on the edge of Narooma. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council website.
The statement of environmental effects said the proposed development was consistent with the objectives of R2 zoning by providing “diverse and affordable housing product to the Narooma market that is not currently being delivered”.
The statement listed four social and economic benefits of the development. They are the provision of additional and diverse housing stock that will appeal to an ageing population looking to downsize, a different housing tenure model that is increasing in demand across regional NSW, the coordinated development of an identified urban release area in Narooma, and the creation of a land lease community, the first of its type in the locality.
The site is mapped as bushfire prone.
The proposal was first tabled with council officers on 2 February 2023 when several issues were discussed. They met again with the council on 27 November prior to lodging the DA.
One issue discussed was that MHEs are prohibited in R2 zones. The statement said legal advice was provided to the council.
“As MHEs are not defined as a land use by the standard local environment plan (LEP) or the Eurobodalla LEP, the proposed development can be characterised as multi-dwelling housing or seniors’ housing. This was confirmed in a decision of the Land and Environment Court (TMT Devco Pty Limited v Cessnock City Council) where an MHE was characterised as a type of multi-dwelling housing for the purposes of the relevant LEP when considering whether the proposed development for the purpose of a MHE was permissible,” the statement said.
The red broken line shows the development site at 27 Old Highway and 77 Old Highway in Narooma. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council website.
Because less than one hectare of native vegetation will be cleared, only a streamlined biodiversity assessment report was required. The March 2024 report concluded that the developer must purchase 21 ecosystem credits and 29 species credits for swift parrots to offset the development’s impact on habitat. Measures to minimise the development’s impact include retention of 63 per cent of native vegetation communities and swift parrot habitat on the site and retention of four of the six trees mapped as potential habitat trees.
The two sites were rural residential land with a dwelling on each.
The traffic impact assessment report of February 2024 said the site was located about two kilometres to the southwest of the Narooma town centre. It said the development would cause an additional 46 trips in the morning peak hour and 52 in the afternoon peak hour and was “unlikely to have any material impact on the performance of the road network”.
However it found that both the right and left turns from the Princes Highway into Old Highway were “currently deficient from a safety perspective, based upon existing (recorded 2021) traffic volumes”.
The proposed development may be a new model for Narooma but a DA is with Bega Valley Shire Council for a 162-house development for over-60s in Bermagui. Further south in Bega Valley, an 86-unit seniors housing development in Merimbula was approved after the council was taken to court to debate the $40 million proposal.
Broadlands has established land lease communities in Green Point on the NSW Central Coast, Muswellbrook, Tamworth and Harrington.
Original Article published by Marion Williams on About Regional.
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