The development plan for a proposed subdivision off Bunglegumbie Road has been approved, despite council admitting it's "not best practice".
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The development control plan for 168A Bunglegumbie Road went before Dubbo Regional Council at the March meeting.
A development control plan is an overarching set of rules that dictates how the land can be changed over time. In this case, the DCP was submitted to the council by Maas Group.
The developers have plans for 105 residential allotments in the area and up to 160 dwellings. It will be part of the council's north-west urban release area, which is expected to include up to 5500 new homes.
However, after a back-and-forth with Maas, council director of development and environment Stephen Wallace admitted the Bunglegumbie control plan was not to the same standard as the rest of the north-west urban release area will be.
"It's not ideal. It is not best practice. It is of a standard, however, that is approvable. But what you're seeing in the greater north-west is a very much higher standard of development," he said.
"I think that hopefully should be reflected in the market in time to come where people want to be."
The DCP was modified from what the council initially wanted after pushback from Maas. It included reducing the road width from 22 metres to 16 metres and increasing the number of lots in the first stage from 60 to 80 and footpaths only being required on one side of local streets.
In the submission made by Maas ahead of the DCP being finalised, the developers said changes suggested by the council were "not clearly justified" and would "result in significant impacts to the site".
Deputy mayor Richard Ivey said it seemed the council had "stumbled at the first hurdle" of trying to put in a state-of-the-art subdivision.
"We've reduced the width of the street. We have not incorporated any green space area. We haven't got blocks of greater than 900 square meters. We've given away the requirement for a 25 metre minimum frontage. We've increased the number of blocks from 60 to 80," he said.
"It just seems to me that we've now got a subdivision that's really a run-of-the-mill ordinary subdivision where as I understood, the north-west precinct was really going to be something special, something that this regional council could be proud of."
While the DCP has now been approved, the development application for the Maas subdivision is still awaiting a tick from the council staff.
Heading into the "third calendar year of this shovel-ready project" Maas has implored the council to approve the DA so that "much-needed housing for the community can be provided as the region continues to grow".
The north-west precinct is spread across almost 375 hectares, about two kilometres from the central business district.
The area will have "high-quality roads and innovative housing alongside retail and commercial services, a hierarchy of new roads and active transport connections, and well-connected open spaces", according to the plan.
It has been designed with a range of low to high density housing - including seniors housing. It will also feature a village centre with "a range of commercial, mixed use, and potential education (primary and secondary school) development opportunities designed to provide for the needs of local residents within walking and cycling distance from home".