Malvern changes zones round county towns

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 16

Malvern changes zones round county towns

Changes to the Malvern County Council’s District Planning Scheme approved at a meeting last Friday have put rural residential zones round all the county’s townships. Rural residential zones let people hobby farm and have larger sections than those in residential zoning, while still being close to the town’s facilities, said the council’s town planner, Mr V. M. Chailies.

“It will establish a sense of community rather than having people scattered round the edge of the towns,” he said. “It also makes it easier for the council to do capital works, such as installing new water supplies.” The council has extended the rural residential zone at Kirwee and Darfield, where it surrounds the residential zonings in the centre of the towns. It has created rural residential zones round Coalgate, Sheffield, Springfield, Hororata, Burnham, and Greendale.

In Darfield, Cridges Road was affected by the changes and a number of people objected. Before the change, Cridges Road was partly rural residential and partly residential, although there was a sawmill and honey factory there.

Plans for a potato storage plant had also been approved by the council before

the changes were made, although this will be subject to a Planning Tribunal hearing. The objectors had a variety of claims, Mr Challies said. The mill owners wanted to make sure they could extend the mill in future under the new zoning, and some property owners wanted to subdivide land.

The council reached a compromise by reinstating the rural residential zoning over part of the area arid made the rest rural A, he said. This rural A would allow the mill limited expansion by making it a conditional use in the area. Music festivals Music festivals and workshops may be held more often in future at Whitecliffs. The council approved an application by Mr D. A. S. Grenell to increase the number of festivals and concerts he could hold at his property, the Double D Appaloosa Stud. Before the application, Mr Grenell could hold only one two-day and two oneday music festivals, each with a maximum of 5000 ale, and 10 one-day conwith up to 500 people each year. He wanted this increase to include another three one-day festivals and a week-long workshop festival.

A petition, signed by 28 Whitecliffs residents, ob-

jected to Mr Grenell’s appli- ■ L ‘ ' ' 1 It said more festivals 5 would attract “undesirable ‘ elements” and encourage < unruly behaviour. The roads ; were unsuitable and there j would be traffic hazards to < pedestrians and stock. ' The council decided to < allow one two-day music ‘ festival with up to 5000 •• people each day. Another 18 t ' days keach year could be used fpr fesivals and con- ’ certs with a maximum « attendance of 1000 people j each day. ’ It wanted numbered < tickets to be issued to ; people at each concert so that numbers could be policed. It decided that any festival held could not go » longer than one week. Mr Challies said 1000 « people a day on the pro- ‘ perty was equal to having > the population of Darfield * there and the property’s > sanitary facilities would * need to be improved for a 5 week-long festival. ; ; Glenthorne ’ Glenthorne station near ’ Lake Coleridge will have its ■« accommodation extended > when a new homestead is * built. *

The council aipproved al- * most doubling the accommodation available, to 34 1 people, by building the new i homestead and moving an ’ old house. There were no . objections.