Ballina Shire Council will tomorrow debate a revised DA for stock holding yards, storm water management and other changes to the Alstonville Showgrounds.
The relevant land is zoned RE2 (Private Recreation). This story was last in the news a year ago, when it became a political battering ram between different factions on Ballina Council.
The showground development originally became controversial when the stock yards were constructed without a DA, causing complaints from surrounding residents. In February 2023, Ballina Council issued a Show Cause Notice to the Alstonville Agricultural Society (AAS), inviting them to address the concerns of residents and council.
There were then a series of delays in the lodgement of the promised DA, including an appeal to the Land and Environment Court from the AAS, more argy bargy with Ballina Council over the details of the plan and its impact on neighbours, and a Conciliation conference in April 2024.
Revisions
An amended proposal limited the use of the stock holding pens to horses only, limits on the numbers of horses to be held in the pens, and daylight hours use only.
In November 2024 a vegetation buffer between the pens and neighbouring residents was added to the DA.
The latest plan allows for the stock yards to be used up to ten times per year, in association with equine events held in the main show ring. The excavated levelled area in the northeastern part of the site is to be used as a warm-up area for horse events.
Horses are to be loaded and unloaded via horse floats and small trucks entering through the gate at the northern end of Green Street.
No new lighting is proposed, with new shade structures to a maximum height of 2.7 metres to be added over the stock holding pens. Ten stock holding pens are to be removed to allow for the planting of a vegetation buffer between the pens and neighbouring residents.
The latest plan was on exhibition from 6 December 2024 to January 2025, with 72 objecting submissions being received.
Ballina Council staff are recommending that the DA be approved in its current form, but councillors also have the option of refusal, based on impacts on surrounding residents and the wider Alstonville community.
The issue will be determined at tomorrow’s meeting.
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