It's the market that will determine what should go at the former Dubbo RAAF base site, says Andorra Developments director Mark Stanford.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Stanford recently spoke at the Dubbo Chamber of Commerce's business breakfast. He shared the history of the 100-acre site, as well as the steps taken to get the development to its current stage.
But as for what it will eventually look like, Mr Stanford said it was the market that would have the final say.
"We're really trying to get flexibility to allow the market to determine the site's best use," he said.
"It's really not for landowners, or council, or town planners or the state government [to decide]. The marketplace, the business owners, the entrepreneurs, the people writing the cheques, the people with confidence to employ staff and invest money is what will determine any site's highest and best use."
ALSO MAKING NEWS:
The developer also spoke about the difficulties in dealing with the slow bureaucratic process, which moved much slower than the market opportunity.
One example he gave was when the company lodged a section 60 application with Heritage NSW.
The application is to get approval to undertake work at a state significate heritage item, like the former RAAF base.
Mr Stanford said the application was launched in January.
"What should have been a pretty straight forward application didn't get approved until the 24th of June. Now, I had a condition in my consent from the ecologist that I couldn't clear trees between the 1st of July and the 31st of December, so we didn't clear trees that were being used by birds that were nesting. So we could only clear trees in that six months from January until June," he said.
Because of the time it took for the section 60 application to be approved, the developers were left with a four day window to clear the trees from the site.
"I copped a bit of flack for cutting trees down really quick," Mr Stanford said.
"The perception was that we were doing something wrong, but the reality is I was trying to meet a tight deadline. If we didn't get it done by that date, the project would have been on hold for another six months."
Andorra Developments purchased the site in 2011. Phase one of construction started in July 2020.
The RAAF base was constructed in the 1940s.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News