An $11 million townhouse development which will provide a different type of housing for Dubbo residents is making the council re-think its tree policy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The development, taking place across from the former Royal Australian Air Force Base will see eight mature trees retained but the rest are set to be removed.
The Monash Street site will see planting occur within the development with a mixture of new trees, shrubs and groundcovers.
![Only eight trees will be retained along Monash Street. Picture by Amy McIntyre Only eight trees will be retained along Monash Street. Picture by Amy McIntyre](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/37qTRiw9gHRe7AczHzCfjaK/646926f7-82f2-4e3f-9cc5-223e74daa3d2.JPG/r0_0_8256_5504_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Councillor Damien Mahon asked council staff what the commitment was for replanting trees once they had been taken, and was told by the chief executive officer Murray Wood there was no requirement to do offset planting if it's not a tree in a natural environment or an ecosystem.
"There is no compulsory offsetting in that regard as I understand it," Mr Wood said.
Cr Mahon said this was something he would like to talk about further in regards to their policies going forward.
"It's glaringly obvious we're going to lose a hell of a lot of green, fantastic trees there and there's no real commitment to replace them," he said.
"That's the rules today but we might have to work on it."
READ MORE:
He wasn't the only councillor that felt strongly about the loss of trees in the new development, with councillor Josh Black saying it was "quite disappointing" there would be the removal of a "fair few very large eucalyptus trees" from the site.
"I think that as a council we really need to get a tree preservation order in and really look at the controls that we've got in place that protect large vegetation, large canopy trees throughout the LGA so that we can have a local government area that's liveable as the climate warms," he said.
"We need to take some action around that...otherwise we're going to continue to lose these really nice trees around the place, which makes it a bit worse for everyone in the community."
With eight trees being kept along Monash Street, the community would still be losing four large mature trees.
Councillor Matthew Wright said he would support some form of protection in regards to planting elsewhere to look after the trees that are lost.
Other concerns about the 47 two storey multi dwellings that were brought up from the councillors included the number of parking spaces and traffic within the area.
DRC Director development and environment Stephen Wallace said the proposal met all of the criteria, stating two car parking spaces would be met for all residences.
"There will be additional car parking spaces for visitors...also it does additionally have some curbside car parking around time on the street," he said.
Mr Wallace said after an assessment of the surrounding road network it has sufficient capacity to deal with more traffic once the development is built.
Despite the concerns, deputy mayor Richard Ivey said it was a really good development for Dubbo and would bring in roughly $630,000 worth of contributions to the council.
"It will enable the council to spend the money on various aspects, which from a financial point of view is very good," he said.