A developer’s bid to subdivide a 60-acre parcel of farmland at Kyneton South into 87 residential lots would be a complete overdevelopment of the site, local residents say.
The land at 85 Harpers Lane is zoned Low Density Residential, paving the way for such a subdivision to occur, but Macedon Ranges Shire Council is still in the process of finalising its strategic planning for the area.
Neighbouring landholders Ian and Ruth Williams say the council’s draft Kyneton South Investigation Area Framework Plan should be completed before any decision on the application is made.
“We see this proposal as another ad hoc, poorly planned, ‘satellite’ development on Kyneton’s perimeter that will have a degrading impact on amenity,” Mr Williams said.
“The impact is not upon the immediate neighbourhood only, but a radiating effect well beyond, being a bad example of an incremental, slipshod, tack-on Sunburyisation of Kyneton’s unique, and still intact, 19th century town character.”
The residents describe the proposed development as neither low density nor low impact.
“This area was sold on the basis it was going to be one-acre lots and they’re half-acre lots proposed at the moment,” Ms Williams said.
“We have farms with cattle and sheep and so on, and all of a sudden this tightly packed together development, it’s a jarring boundary between the two, there should be something in keeping with what’s already here.
“The way it’s planned there’s suburban driveways all along Harpers Lane with double garages and that’s the sight that people on farming properties are going to see, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
The residents are also concerned that Harpers Lane is not suitable for the volume of traffic the development would create, and list the potential of the area to flood, waterway management and a lack of infrastructure to support the development as further concerns.
Angela Hughes, council’s director of planning and environment, said the Kyneton South Framework Plan was on hold pending further work to be undertaken as part of the Kyneton Movement Network Study.
“Further work on car parking analysis for the Kyneton town centre is being undertaken as part of the Kyneton Urban Design Framework. This work, when complete, will be also used to inform the Kyneton Movement Network Study,” Ms Hughes said.
The applicant and objectors will be given an opportunity to speak to councillors at a submitters’ delegated committee meeting tomorrow night at 7pm. The meeting will be held online and livestreamed via council’s website.
The application will then proceed to a future council meeting for a decision.
