WAS Bathurst Regional Council disappointed in the number of sales in its latest land release?
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In a way, yes, but council can move forward knowing it has a solid plan for the future of housing in Bathurst.
Director of Environmental Planning and Building Services, Neil Southorn, said that council was at the planning stage for a new subdivision in Windradyne, in addition to having master plans for Laffing Waters and a new area in Eglinton.
Both of the master plans include neighbourhood activity centres (NACs), which would deliver much-needed amenities to those areas.
Mr Southorn said these were included in the plans to meet the demands for more shops and green space closer to where people live.
"There's growing interest to not be so dependent on motor vehicles ... that there's some open space to play in, to walk the dog, kick the footy that's walking distance from home," he said.
However, the slow sale of land in council's latest release, Sunnybright Estate, has raised questions over the demand for land in Bathurst.
Mr Southorn admitted that it didn't go as well as council would have hoped, but explained that the market was tight and other subdivisions were facing a similar problem.
"Council sells land by a ballot system, so it is always hard to predict. It would have been nice to have sold them all, but it's not to be," he said.
"It was a bit disappointing I think."
When asked if there was concern moving forward with the other subdivisions planned, he said that council expected market conditions would eventually return to the level of demand that has been seen previously.
"They're not yet at the market and council will consider how it approaches the rest," he said.
"Council will assess the market conditions, same as every other provider, and make decisions that way."
Future planning for Bathurst is guided by council's housing strategy, which takes into account both short term and long term trends, and part of the planning is to provide sufficient land for the projected population growth.
Mr Southorn said that council is looking to provide a greater choice in housing stock, such as having a variety of lot sizes available, in its new estates.
Council is also interested in appropriate urban renewal in established areas to control the expansion of Bathurst's footprint, which would require a large investment into more essential services.
"There's no great plans to change anything, but nonetheless we can't leave that behind as well. We have to take that into account," he said.
The other factor that will be part of future planning is traffic and transport infrastructure, the direction of which will become clearer once a joint traffic study between council and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) concludes.
Mr Southorn said he was happy with how council was planning to meet the city's future needs.
"There's land available to meet current demand, it's available in multiple locations and therefore people have choice about where they live," he said.
"We have long-term plans in place and we are delivering master plans to guide how development in the future should go."