Milton Meadows- Caught between a rock and a hard place.

This coming Tuesday 11 August brings to Councils agenda the rezoning of 15 hectares
(37 acres) of land in Milton, that helps to create the rural interface between town and farmland. The motion that is currently on the paper I just cannot support as it opens up the potential to subdivide the land into a large lot subdivision (down to 2000sqm if dual occupancy is applied, call this plan A).
This is completely at odds with the original reason behind the rezoning application for a retirement village with a high care facility.
A request has been made to staff to offer up a way forward that protects the land from large lot subdivision but gives the developer the opportunity to move ahead with the original retirement village plan (call this plan B).
So by supporting Plan B, I find myself "between a rock and a hard place" as I am effectively supporting development on land that the community wanted quarantined against development to help retain the village atmosphere of Milton.
However, by voting NO for plan B, I help turn the land over to more development that has no social benefit. The owner of the land already has the existing rights to carve the block into 4 portions, which I think is ample development for this part of town. I would like to vote to retain the current zoning, but as a loan Green voice in Council, I simply won't have the numbers to block the development. In Milton there is already ample land zoned to accomodate retirement living, we don’t need to rezone any prime farmland.

For more history read on…..

The land that is known as Milton Meadows is on the Southern side of Milton. Mostly a hillside that once was cleared it has some remnant rainforest vegetation along an intermittent creek bank. The land helps to give a rural edge to Milton and joins on to other farmland, a school and some residential blocks.
When creating a Strategy plan for the future of the district Shoalhaven Council consulted with the community on a number of things, strong representations were given to council that wanted coastal villages to maintain their own identity and not become a homogenous never ending suburb!
So, it was with this in mind that the land was given a scenic hatching or a special zoning that meant the land couldn’t be turned into suburbia!
Over the years, the developer of this land put pressure on Council to remove the special zoning to allow them to develop a retirement village. Council eventually caved to this pressure.

If you feel strongly about this issue please contact myself and Shoalhaven City Council.