The Pottsville community and local wildlife won in the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) on Thursday, 5 June when Commissioner Dickson refused the appeal by Turner Contracting Pty Ltd (DA 23/0302) for the proposed development of a long-term luxury caravan park at 1126 Pottsville Road, Pottsville.
The proposed development had been refused by the Tweed Shire Council on September 7, 2023 based on numerous issues including the ecological value of the site, tree removal, proximity to coastal wetlands, impact on koala habitat and sewerage.
There had also been 319 objections to the development with issues around the DAs lack of detail particularly in relation to the lack of clarity around which sites would be for caravans and how many would be for more permanent manufactured homes structures. 26 of the proposed sites were within the prohibited wetlands area and the whole area is in the kolala plan of management and the koala corridor.
Turner Contracting Pty Ltd property developers appealed the decision in the L&EC and a conciliation meeting was at the site on Wednesday, 3 April, 2024.
‘The Commissioner refused the appeal on the following grounds: Inadequate arrangements for the disposal and management of sewerage. Unacceptable impacts on the natural environment, including to koalas,’ explained Josie Styles one of the speakers to the conciliation meeting from the Pottsville community who is also a principal ecologist with 30 years experience in construction.
At the conciliation meeting Ms Styles explained that the ‘koala population that is necessary for maintaining genetic diversity and a key population for breeding and dispersal’.
During the conciliation meeting a local male koala called Odin, one of the koalas that uses koala corridor over the Seabreeze Estate into the proposed development area, made an appearance.
‘I’ve recorded eight individual koalas, male and female, since August 2023 at this location. The proposed development is in the core home range of this koala population,’ Ms Styles told The Echo at the time.
Community action and thanks
‘Massive thanks to everyone in the Pottsville Community from the door-knockers, pamphlet designers and droppers, petition stand volunteers, petition signers and everyone who registers koala sightings in the Tweed Shire Council sightings database. These additional sightings led the Commissioner to question the validity of the ecological report prepared by Turner Contracting Pty Ltd,’ Ms Styles said.
‘Thank you most importantly to Tweed Shire Council for using sound judgement and refusing the initial (and revised) DA’s and standing strong in the face of public and political pressure.’
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