A deal between Dubbo Regional Council and a new solar farm could lead to more social housing for the city.
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The council has entered into a planning agreement with X-Elio Roma Hub Solar Farm for the $185 million Forest Glen Solar Farm.
A planning agreement is a deal between the council and a developer that often requires the developer to fund infrastructure or amenities.
Under the planning agreement, X-Elio is required to pay the council $200,000 per year for five years.
The money will be used for a Community Housing Incentivisation Scheme.
According to the agreement, the scheme "aims to provide an innovative assistance solution to help the development of community housing in the Dubbo Regional local government area".
The planning agreement will begin once construction on the solar farm starts.
The council's director of development and environment Stephen Wallace said when that happens, the council will seek expressions of interest from community housing providers.
"At that point they would address a set of very detailed criteria to apply for that year's allowance of $200,000. And effectively, what they'd be looking to do is to utilise that $200,000 to enable them to get a loan to develop community housing or to stack different grants from different areas to make such a project viable," he said.
If the council does not receive any expressions of interest, the money will be transferred into a community benefit fund.
In February, St Vincent de Paul volunteer Ian Wray said there were 613 households in Dubbo who were on the social housing waitlist.
"Not everyone's on an executive payroll. Most of them are around the average weekly earnings and they're trying to raise a family and cover all their expenses," Mr Wray said.
"There's an awful lot of people out there now that don't own their own homes and will never own their own homes because they haven't got the ability to save money towards them," he said.
Deputy mayor Richard Ivey praised the agreement, he was critical of the small amount the developer would be required to pay.
He said $200,000 a year for a project worth $185 million "was less than what we perhaps would be looking forward to in the future".
Mayor Mathew Dickerson said while it was less than what the council normally aimed for in a planning agreement, it was the first one with a solar farm.
"That's good news. [It's] not at a high enough level, but we're making steps in the right direction at least," he said.
The Forest Glen Solar Farm has a 90 megawatt capacity with 25 megawatt per hour storage capacity.
It will be constructed at 30L Delroy Road at Minore.
It's expected to provide up to 200 construction jobs during the building phase and then 10 full-time equivalent operational jobs.
The solar farm has an expected operational life of 35 years.