Bathurst Regional Council is creating 59 new lots on land previously earmarked for a retirement village.

The subdivision that will be known as Eglinton 100 joins two private sector developments underway at Eglinton that will eventually create 144 new lots.

Elsewhere in the city, more blocks are set to spring up on land near Holy Family School at Kelso.

Bathurst Regional Council snapped up the land for its Eglinton development after Crighton Developments’ plans fell through for a seniors’ living complex on the site.

Crighton Developments announced its proposal for a “resort-style” retirement village on the site in 2008.

The plan was to roll out 12 to 24 units each year over an eight-year period.

However, the timing was wrong and the developer was hit hard by the global financial crisis later that year.

The Crighton board struggled to find the investors it needed to go ahead with the project and the plans sat idle for four years.

Receivers finally put the land on the market in 2013 and council subsequently purchased the site.

Council’s director of corporate services Bob Roach said around 23 hectares of land will be turned into residential blocks.

Council is currently putting in roads, kerb and guttering and other infrastructure.

Mr Roach said the lots will be for sale to the public in April/May through council’s ballot system.

They range in size from 800 square metres to 1000 square metres, with a couple of larger 1200 square metre blocks suitable for duplexes.

Mr Roach said the prices had not yet been set, with the matter to go before council in March.

“A report is sent to council and the councillors set the prices,” he said. 

“They are always based on market price.”

Bathurst Regional Council has targeted Eglinton as one of the region’s growth areas. 

“Council has allocated millions to upgrade the water and sewerage in Eglinton as part of the overall development of the area,” Mr Roach said.

“Eglinton will be a very desirable place to live.”

Mr Roach said council is also working on the release of another 60 housing lots at Windradyne. 

These lots in the Windy development will also go on sale in April/May. The infrastructure for that housing development is also currently being built.

This development is also on council-owned land.

But it doesn’t end there, Mr Roach said. By the end of December, he said, council will have released a further 60 blocks to cater for the constant demand for land.

“Most of the time these blocks sell out,” he said.

Lots are now for sale in the first stage of the private Hynash development at Eglinton.

As well as National Broadband Network infrastructure, Hynash’s Icely Estate, off Cox Lane, has a cycleway wrapping around it.

Hynash Constructions is a local company that constructs residential, rural, commercial and industrial subdivisions.