IT has been two years since a development application was approved for the old Dairy Farmers site and, while there has been little action on site, there is still a lot of confidence that the Quest apartments will be built.
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Bathurst Regional Council approved the DA for the serviced apartments at a meeting in December, 2019, with the plans also including a commercial office suite and a piazza.
Despite getting the green light, the site on the corner of Howick and Bentinck streets remains vacant.
However, council's director of Environmental, Planning and Building Services, Neil Southorn, is optimistic about the site's future.
"Council is hopeful that it's not long before the Quest development starts to emerge," he said.
He is unable to reveal any other details at this time.
The Quest development was mentioned by Mr Southorn while discussing the future of the former TAFE building with the Western Advocate and how it fits in the Town Square Master Plan.
"We've got the Quest development approved, and that's a block that way," he said, pointing east of the TAFE site.
"We've got the medical centre on the table - a long way to go yet - but that is a block away, so this becomes really, really valuable as a focus for the new town centre, respecting the concept of the Town Square."
The Quest development has been a long time coming, with numerous proposals put forward and more than one of them approved.
A similar proposal to the current was lodged for the Dairy Farmers site in 2016.
Council rejected it due to a range of issues, including the height and bulk of the proposed building and insufficient parking allocations.
Local heritage advocates also objected to the development, feeling it didn't fit in with Bathurst's heritage landscape.
The proposal put forward in 2019 was the sixth DA lodged in relation to the land since 2007.
It attracted five submissions when it was exhibited in 2019, with those submissions raising more than 30 issues.
Taking the concerns into account, council approved the development with 30 conditions of consent attached to it.
Councillors praised the developers for coming up with a plan that would work.
"To me now, with what I've seen and I've read ... I think we've come to the point now with this site that it's a great fit for the city," then deputy mayor Ian North said.
The Western Advocate has contacted the developers of the site to request comment on the status of the project.
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