By Corey Everitt
The rejection of a house and shed in a Bunyip property has been deferred by the council who determined ‘further deliberation’ was needed for the property and its planned flower farm.
The proposal brought before councillors on Monday 6 May’s Town Planning Meeting sought permission on a Murphy Lane lot for development that would take up approximately a third of the agriculturally zoned lot.
The proposal included building an almost 350sqm house alongside a shed covering roughly 650sqm with three 30,000 litre water tanks plus two others unspecified on the Murphy Lane lot.
The applicant proposes to operate a flower farm, specifically within a 1.6ha section of the land.
The council officers assessment was that the proposal was ‘at odds’ with the surrounding land of ‘expansive agricultural allotments’, which would see the green wedge landscape ‘diminished’.
The officers also objected to the development occupying one-third of the property and deemed this against existing protections of agricultural land.
A conflict with the ‘right to farm’ was also raised as the council believed the proposal could have impacts on nearby farms with ‘noise and drifting’ of sprays and fertiliser, the infringement on the ‘rural feel’ of the streetscape and it’s potential to inflate the value of the land by establishing such a development in the area.
Overall, it was determined that it can not ‘legitimately be said’ whether the ‘full time supervision’ necessitating the development was required for the farm.
Cr Moore instead moved a motion to defer the matter to another meeting so that further investigation can be made into such issues as the sighting of the dwelling.
Cr Moore said the applicant is open to changes to address some of the concerns raised by the council officers, and he wished to see these potential matters clarified before a final decision is made.
The motion to defer was carried unanimously.
