Skip to main content

MINUTES.  GFA Ordinary meeting Thur 20 Jan 2022

Submitted by John Connelly on

Venue By Zoom 4:00pm

Apologies. Chris Watson, Russ Temple,

Present: Robyn Coghlan, : Darryl Seto, Doug Finlayson, David Kelly, Rosemary Blemings, , John Connelly

SUMMARY of ACTIONS

1 xv) ACTION. John to keep an eye on Yass Valley website for DA’s in this area.

3 iv) ACTION. Dave K to draft a submission on Bleuetts Block.

4 iii) ACTION?? Rosemary to draft a letter to Cons Council re fire issues along the Murrumbidgee River Corridor and circulate it.

  1. WESTERN EDGE .
      1. Dave K. I have circulated a submission. Feedback welcome
      2. Robyn. Murrumbidgee River corridor needs to be defined up front then urban must conform to that corridor. Do not want urban defining the corridor.
      3. John. When is time for public submissions??
      4. Dave K. Timelines are very vague. It is not yet time for official submissions.
      5. John. The northern edge should also be included. It is the “natural” area for expansion.as shown by Ginninderry/Parkwood development. At present there appears to be no coordinated planning for this area with NSW Govt approving a 392 Ha solar farm immediately on the ACT border. There appears to have been no coordination in relation to this solar farm approval. Yass Valley knew nothing about it. It will effectively exclude possible as much as 1000Ha from future urban development due to reflection from the panels.
      6. Dave K. Ginninderra (CSIRO) are doing a study of future urban on their land.opposite Gold Creek tourist area.
      7. John. The purchase of two blocks in Parkwood (Fleming/Moore and Shaw Armitage) by the ACT Govt should provide an opportunity to redefine the Conservation Corridor boundaries in this area. The special YLEP provisions provided by Yass Council are no longer necessary. They were negotiated to ensure that these two landowners would be able to get adequate financial return from their land. This no longer applies.
      8. Doug. Hyles and Scibberraa seem to be holding off. They want more money for their land.
      9. Dave K. Provision of sewage infrastructure for the northern section is somewhat problematic as much of it is lower than the Molonglo sewage treatment plant.
      10. Dave K. We need a further EIS for the northern section of the Parkwood development.
      11. Rosemary. Current Rosenbergs Goanna studies are not sufficient. Last was done in 2016??. They need to be updated.
      12. John. 3 studies were done.
      13. Dave K. Need to keep an eye on DA’s submitted to the Yass Valley Council.
      14. Dave K. COG did a big study of the Brown Flycatcher in Mulligans Flat.
      15. ACTION. John to keep an eye on Yass Valley website for DA’s in this area.
      16. Rosemary. It is “common knowledge” that urban development close to a reserve reduces bird numbers. Riverview claim they will plant species suitable for the Scarlet Robin. Canberra Nature map shows records of Scarlet Robin sightings.
  2. GFA OBJECTIVES
      1. Dave K. Need to broaden the scope of GFA’s objectives. Suggests 1) Western Edge, 2) CSIRO site. 3) Northern Edge. 4) Giving priority to preservation of natural habitat when planning urban development.
      2. Rosemary. Peter Cain (ACT Liberal MLA has written an article for Canberra Times re ACT Planning.
      3. John. Hopeless article it is just a political diatribe , pouring scorn of current policy but providing absolutely no alternative vision.
      4. Rosemary. GCG has had meetings with Peter Caine.
  3. BLEUETTS BLOCK.
      1. Rosemary. We should object to the Snow development for Denman place being excused from needing and EIS. Submissions due 10th Feb 2022.
      2. Dave K. A tour of Bleuetts block is planned by the NCA for NPA members.
      3. DISCUSSION OF BLEUETTS BLOCK.
      4. ACTION. Dave K to draft a submission on Bleuetts Block.
      5. Robyn. How much flexibility is there in the constitution for us to engage in such activity??
      6. Darryl. Reads out the Association objects from the Constitution.
      7. Robyn. Not clear whether we can do this.
      8. Doug. Constitution does not limit us to just the Ginninderry area. Reads appropriate section.
  4. FIRE RISK
      1. Rosemary. We should write to the Cons Council about the fire situation along the Murrumbidgee River Corridor further south. Some areas have very similar to that present at the north end of Parkwood development.
      2. Robyn. Supports letter.
      3. ACTION?? Rosemary to draft a letter to Cons Council re fire issues along the Murrumbidgee River Corridor and circulate it.
      4. Dave K. Western Edge study is supposed to include a section “risk of ember attack on ACT”.
      5. Rosemary. Fire study should hopefully protect Bleuetts Block.
      6. Rosemary. Has written to the Fenner School people. Specifically David Lindenmayer.
  5. WEBSITE
      1. ACTION. Dave K would like peoples thoughts on updates to the website.
      2. Darryl. Our Facebook page gets many more hits than the website. However Ellen has stopped posting to it. Maybe we should try to re-activate posting to the Facebook page.

NEXT MEETING FEB 17th 2022. 4:00pm. Via Zoom.

Committee

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Security
975312846Click/tap this sequence: 2759