A court appeal against the council's refusal of Wakefield Park raceway's expansion plan has been upheld.
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The NSW Land and Environment Court handed down its determination on Wednesday.
Despite upholding the appeal, the Commissioner issued consent conditions which gave Wakefield Park fewer race days than Goulburn Mulwaree Council had decided last year.
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One of the major conditions was that once more than four events were held in any calendar month the Park's 1993 consent would be surrendered and the Park would be held to the conditional consent outlined in the court's ruling.
The raceway's owners, BAC WMR Holdings Pty Ltd, mounted the appeal against the council's July, 2021 consent conditions for the company's development application. They also appealed the terms of a July, 2021 noise prevention.
Wakefield Park argued the terms of both would render their Braidwood Road facility "unviable." In court, representatives estimated almost $3 million in losses over three years.
The council had set out a colour coded operational regime that restricted the number of 95 decibel operational days to 50 annually, transitioning to 30 by year three.
By the end of the same term, there would be another 100 days not to exceed 85 decibels in the amber category.
Under green, there would be 112 days maximum not exceeding 75dB(A), increasing to 157 days by January, 2024. The blue category allows for a minimum 76 days, not exceeding 75 decibels.
The terms came in response to neighbour complaints about noise and claims that Wakefield Park had breached the terms of its 1993 consent.
Commissioner Tim Horton determined that the Park may hold a maximum of 365 events annually.
However, events creating noise levels more than five decibels louder than the ambient would be subject to a multiplier effect to determine the number of equivalent events that the event represents.
The determination also ruled there must be respite days between the colour-coded events including 11 respite days for each 'red event', eight respite days between each 'amber event' and four respite days between each 'green' event.
It calculates to be fewer than the number of events proposed by the council and Wakefield Park.
The raceway's owners have not responded to requests for comment. However, on Thursday it cancelled a 'ride day' planned for Sunday, July 17, 'due to unforeseen circumstances.'
In his determination, Commissioner Tim Horton, said residents generally accepted that Wakefield Park "has a place in the community" and had taken steps to mitigate noise impacts.
"While I accept that it is open to the Court to dismiss the appeal and refuse the grant of consent that is now the subject of the appeal, I note the degree of accommodation evident in the public submissions for continued use of the raceway for motorsports, subject to conditions that appropriately balance (its) operations with the impacts on surrounding properties," he said.
The council has acknowledged the court's decision.
"The council is still processing the Land and Environment Court Commissioner's judgement in this matter, and will have more to say on this early next week," a spokesman said.
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