Here is a summary of key decisions taken at the 7 June Council meeting.
Housing Strategy adopted
After an extensive community consultation, last night’s meeting adopted the new Housing Strategy, a document that aims to deliver land to provide housing for the next twenty years.
The strategy identifies new areas or rural land where land can be released for housing.
See more about the new housing strategy here.
Councillors to be updated on sports precinct costs
Council members will be given an extra update on the costs of building the new sports precinct and parklands, following a decision at the 7 June meeting.
PRECINCT: An artist’s impression of the new precinct.
The meeting passed a motion from Cr Mel McDonell which asked for a report to a future meeting “detailing both the Capital and ongoing financials related to the Sporting Precinct”
The report will include factors such as the “expected ongoing costs of servicing and maintaining the Precinct once completed”, the “estimated costs of purchasing new equipment and other resources required to service and maintain the Precinct” and information about “whether these expenses been budgeted for in current and future budgets” and the “likely sources of funding these costs”.
A preliminary response from Council staff provided to last night’s meeting indicated that it was expected that the “estimated additional operational costs per year will increase” once the extra facilities are built but that “these costs will also be offset to some degree by increased revenue streams”. There would also be more accurate operating costs once “detailed designs are being developed for the two stadiums”.
Extra recycling pick-ups for Christmas/New Year
A proposal for an extra yellow-bin recycling waste pick-ups for residents during the Christmas/New Year period this year was deferred until the Council more information about costs.
Last night’s meeting discussed a motion from Cr Glenn Floyd, which called for extra recycling bin collections services during the annual Christmas and New Year’s festive season to “assist residents in the removal of the additional recyclable materials which typically accumulate in households at this time of the year”. The motion called for an increase from “fortnightly to weekly during this period”.
The meeting decided to ask for information about the cost to ratepayers of extra recycling collections , as well as the costs of providing skip bins in supermarket car parks to collect extra recycling collections.
The meeting also discussed the impact of more promotion of the current system of ratepayers buying $2 tickets for an additional recycling bin collection.
Funding approved for key events
The Council meeting heard a report on recent events grants from the state and federal government, and approved plans to link the funding to key festivals and events.
The meeting gave its approval to:
- use $220,000 from Reconnecting Regional NSW – Community Events Program grant to host the proposed Orange Winter Fire Festival in August 2022
- use the balance of the ‘Reconnecting Regional NSW – Community Events Program’ grant ($67,582) to enhance the Council’s 2022 New Year’s Eve event
- use the $35,000 Building Better Regions grant to host the ‘Sprint into Summer – Orange Mile’ in December 2022, and approve a Council contribution of $35,000 from the proposed 2022/23 events budget to the ‘Sprint into Summer – Orange Mile’, as per the requirements of the grant.
New contributions plan on exhibition for comment
The 7 June meeting placed the new Orange Contributions Plan 2022 on exhibition for community comment.
Under state legislation, Councils can charge developers a financial contribution, as a condition of development consent, towards the cost of providing local public infrastructure and facilities needed because of the proposed development.
The plan proposes a charge of $20 thousand dollars per house block in most new housing areas to cover the cost of Council establishing infrastructure, and $11,579 in other parts of Orange.
The new Contributions Plan will be available for inspection online later this week.
Council to look for reasons tree died
The 7 June meeting decided to appoint a qualified arborist to try and discover why a tree died in a housing subdivision in Borrodell Drive.
When the nine-lot subdivision in Borrodell Drive was originally approved by Council in 2007, the approval came with a consent condition that the tree, an 80-year-old Pin Oak had to be retained.
The developer has now applied for a change to the consent conditions, telling the Council the tree had died, and asking for permssion for it to be removed and replaced with two new advanced trees.
A motion from Cr Tony Mileto also asked for community members with any information about how the tree died to make contact with Council.
IN BRIEF:
- The meeting decided to defer the decision on a DA for residence in Kite St pending a site inspection by Councillors. The DA includes plans to remove a tree and make changes to a heritage in building.
- The meeting decided to form a new Bicycle Community Committee as part of the Sport and Recreation Policy Committee framework for the 2022/2024 term of Council. The meeting appointed Cr Steve Peterson as the Committee’s new chair and decided to invite expressions of interest for membership from the community.
- The meeting decided that Council would construct all new dog off leash areas with double gates.
- The meeting decided to provide $2,000 in financial support for the Australian Swim Coaches and Teachers’ NSW Conference to be held in Orange on the 8-10 July 2022
