The developers want to secure as much land as possible along the arterial routes to the new Tamworth St traffic bridge scheduled for construction in 2019 (according to council's Dubbo 2036 development plan).

The boundary lines of the proposed area for rezoning (Macquarie St, Boundary Rd and Palmer St) all lead to the new Tamworth St river crossing. Plus several other feeder streets intersect through the centre i.e. Brisbane St, Darling St, Dalton St, Jubilee St, Sterling St and Taylor St.

This occurred to me after a discussion with a local resident at the community meeting at South Dubbo Tavern on Tuesday evening (February 18, 2014).

This acquaintance reminded me of the situation that occurred when the LH Ford Bridge was constructed on Cobra St. Prior to its construction the main river crossing for Dubbo was across Bultje St.

At that time, Cobra St was the premier residential area of Dubbo (a few of the more stately homes remain along the southern side of Cobra St between Bourke St and Fitzroy St. The rest have been bulldozed to make way for motels and fast food outlets.

I think the proposal for multi-storey flats in the area was a smokescreen to divert attention away from the developers' main aim of securing the right to commercially develop all these arterial roads once high volumes of traffic start with the opening of the new Tamworth St river crossing.

This rezoning, if it goes through, will allow (on all the arterial streets) the development of attached dwellings, hostels, residential flat buildings, semi-detached dwellings, restaurants, cafes, shop top housing, backpackers accommodation, hotel and motel accommodation, serviced apartments and hospitals.

The bottom paragraph of council's blue tri-fold brochure (South Dubbo Housing Choice) states the above developments are, "consistent with council's adopted residential land use strategy that guides the zoning of land in the city to be used for residential purposes."

To the average person, the commercial developments described above i.e. hotels, motels, cafes, shops etc. are consistent with the Cobra St model; more so than council's interpretation of, "land to be used for residential purposes."

All roads in this rezoning lead to Tamworth St (river crossing).

The South Dubbo Housing Choice Public Meeting - South Dubbo Tavern 18 February 2014, 5:30pm. It was convened in the restaurant area of the South Dubbo Tavern.

There was no sound system available, so a large portion of those gathered could not see what was taking place and could not hear anything being said by the council representative hosting the meeting.

It rapidly occurred to those in attendance that this situation was unacceptable and a demand to cancel and reconvene the meeting was called. The council reluctantly acquiesced to public demand and agreed to reconvene the meeting next week, at a date, time and venue to be announced in coming days.