THE owners of the Harvey Norman site at Kelso have failed in their bid to have part of the block rezoned to allow for a small residential development.
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An application from The Petrinovic Family Trust (TPFT) was originally rejected by Bathurst Regional Council before the owners requested a review of the decision.
The matter then came before the October meeting of council where the original rejection was upheld by a vote of six to three.
TPFT had hoped to divide the 1.27-hectare site on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Ashworth Drive into four new lots.
The largest lot, measuring 9980 square metres, would contain the existing Harvey Norman retail store along with loading and unloading areas to the north of the store and carpark to the south.
The three new lots, measuring between 788 square metres and 1023 square metres, were described on the development application as being earmarked for “residential” purposes.
In a letter to council seeking to have the original decision overturned, TPFT director Nick Petrinovic said council had not “sufficiently taken into account all facets of the application”.
He said an original request to have the land rezoned was put to council in 2006 when there was an understanding the proposal might benefit both the Bathurst region and landowner.
At the time, council rejected the proposal as a new Local Environment Plan (LEP) for the region was expected to be completed in 2008 or 2009.
That expectation proved to be over-optimistic, however, and council is still waiting for the LEP to be gazetted.
“Due to the length of time between our initial requests for council to consider the change in use for this property, our financial position has also changed,” Mr Petrinovic wrote.
“We feel council has put on hold for far too long our opportunities for this land and hence we are in economic hardship.
“We feel the greater Bathurst area would benefit more from the land being zoned under residential rather than further releasing bulky goods zoned land that is already in excess for the area.”
But in his report to councillors, environmental planning and building services director David Shaw said the land remained subject to a change in zoning under the new LEP which, he said, was expected to be gazetted this month.
He said the new LEP would not allow residential accommodation on the smaller lots proposed by TPFT.
