Manyana Bendelong- face massive commercial development

Tonight's Ordinary Council meeting (19 Oct 2010)saw Council support a massive Commercial Development for the sleepy coastal holiday villages of Manyana Bendalong.
The area currently has around 900 dwellings which are 70% unoccupied for most of the year with the population exploding over the Xmas period as people visit their holiday homes.
A developer has put forward an application for 14 shops in a commercial area-with the first stage building 7 shops. In an attempt to bring the development to be more in scale with the village- I put forward with the support of Clr Miller and Clr Fergusson a consent condition that would have seen only five shops built and further justification brought to Council before the next stage commences.

I thought that this was a reasonable option that would be a better outcome for the community in that there wouldn't be a great big commercial white elephant in their midst and the developer would have half a chance at filling the smaller amount of shops.

However Clrs in their wisdom seemed to think that my reduction in shop numbers was against business and couldn't see the writing on the wall that shops will sit empty until the permanent population increases. Meantime the two small business that exist in the area will have to close when the development is complete and in my opinion the one with the ability to fund a larger operation will get the prime spot in the new shopping centre.

The developer will have 5 years to commence the development- so I wonder when the new shops will emerge and what the outcome will be.