RESIDENTS who opposed the Disability Trust’s respite centre and group home in Run-O-Waters should have vented their anger towards Council’s town planning laws rather than the application itself.
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Under Goulburn Mulwaree’s Local Environmental Plan (LEP), the development is allowable in the zone.
The LEP considers the group home component to be a type of residential accommodation.
The development also complies with the LEP objective that it does not “unreasonably increase the demand for public services or public facilities”.
There will be extra vehicle movements to and from the site but this increase wouldn’t be regarded as creating an “unreasonable” demand on Run-O-Waters Drive and link roads.
Disability Trust was merely exercising its legal right to establish the facility which provides a valuable service to those in our community with disabilities and their carers.
And neighbours were exercising their right to resist the facility.
But a lot of their submissions to Council were bordering on the extreme.
“This will be the thin edge of the wedge for business to set a precedent and we believe the respite centre could also be used for any type of criminal and mentally unstable person,” wrote one resident.
Others wanted to know what type of disabilities clients had, and feared that they could be prone to wandering.
They are ignorant, if not offensive, statements.
Others thought the site was inappropriate because of the possible threat from wildlife.
In a startling revelation, Disability Trust clients could encounter deadly snakes.
Imagine if our councillors knocked back the application based on that ridiculous contention.
For residents’ information, the Disability Trust occupied a premises at Blackshaw Road, near the Goulburn Golf Course entrance, for a number of years.
The place was teeming with the poisonous reptiles which inhabited the banks of the nearby Mulwaree River.
Clients, staff and snakes got along well.
There is no evidence to suggest neighbouring Run-O-Waters Drive properties would be “significantly devalued”.
There is evidence to suggest that knowing exactly what kind of operation is happening next door, and knowing there are council conditions on that operation (like ensuring the rear yard is kept clean and tidy at all times), would in fact bring peace of mind.
Many of the residents whining about an unobtrusive, much-needed facility that caters for local people with disabilities would own properties valued at more than $600,000.
Some perspective please.
