[First Published on: Nov 12, 2009]
Back in February 2008, amidst the perfume of corruption wafting out of Wollongong, this Daily Telegraph piece revealed that despite having been earlier deemed ‘unsuitable for habitation’ by an expert panel, NSW Planning rezoned Tralee from a $4million dollar rural site owned by Village Building Company, into $200 million dollars of residential land owned by Village building Company.
The principal lobbyist for VBC at this time was Paul Whalan of Endeavour Consulting, former ACT Labor minister, friend of, and campaigner for NSW MP Steve Whan.
A fortnight ago, the Sydney Morning Herald brought word that the dreams of Village Building Company selling 5,000 homes aren’t beyond pulling a fast one on the NSW Planning Minister and using old-school real estate tricks, by organising her site visits to experience the flyover noise on days and times when there are reduced flights.
The SMH article also pointed out that Steve Whan, current NSW Labor member for Monaro and Queanbeyan resident, worked as a lobbyist for Village Building Company prior to being elected, and that despite the CEO of Village Building Company being a staunch member of the Liberal Party, both Steve Whan and NSW Labor have taken ‘donations’ from Village Building Company totalling $90,000.
Today the ABC Online bring us the joyous news that Tralee is far from dead, having been given approval by the NSW Planning Minister, it is now in the hands of the Queanbeyan City council.
With the promise of 5000 new homes built on their soil by Village Building Company (and receiving the ongoing rates thereof) Queanbeyan City Council has today opened the proposal to its public consultation phase.
Since:
1) There’s unlikely to be a caveat for homebuyers that “if you choose to live in house built under the flightpath after the 24 freight hub was announced, you really have no right to complain about aircraft noise”,
2) Any prior admission of problems will greatly diminish the immediate monetary return for the VBC,
3) Queanbeyan City Council will charge rates based on land value,
4) Any Tralee residents will be voters in the highly-contestable Eden-Monaro Federal electorate, rather than the ‘safe’ Federal electorates of Canberra or Fraser,
5) Regulation of airports is a Federal responsibility…
Expect collossal shitfights around local, state, and federal election time from now into the forseeable future.
In case you missed it, these are Queanbeyan City Council’s proposed sites.
This is the Gungahlin Community Council’s statement flyer on the Tralee development, and its likely impact on noise sharing for North Canberrans.
[Ed – thought this comment from the Village Building Co deserved more attention on this subject]
From Ken Ineson
Submitted on 2009/11/17 at 11:39pm
In response to the comments posted over the last few days:
Its not against the law to complain about things and I cannot guarantee that people won’t complain. If you look at records of complaints in any city, you will see that complaints are received from virtually every suburb about all sorts of issues. What we will do however is create an environment that fully informs people through notices on titles etc. This will help to minimise the liklihood of complaints and also provides a robust defence against complaints.
Outdoor noise levels in Tralee are substantially less than in may parts of Jerrabomberra and less than half the noise currently experienced by over one million Australians including a large proportion living near curfew free airports. The vast majority of these people are not concerned about aircraft noise. That population of 1 million people turns over continually with people moving from quieter areas into noisier areas without any concern.
Tralee is between 10km and 12 km from the airport and cannot be compared to Marrackville, Twin Waters or housing 3km from an airforce base. Noise levels at Tralee are so low that the Australian Standard does not require internal insulation for most of Tralee even if the airport grows larger than Sydney airport with fights including 747s at 2 minute intervals day and night. We have offered to insulate to provide additional amenity well beyond that provided in any other development in Australia and probably the entire world.
Tralee is close to the Monaro Highway and backgraound noise levels are slightly higher than Jerrabomberra. The background noise level at Tralee is not dissimilar to many perfectly acceptable suburbs around the country with far more aircraft noise than Tralee.
I find it interesting that I havent had a single response to my offer to inspect the site. I guess its much easier to jump on a soapbox while hiding behind a computer.