Highlights from meeting ten of the Wyee West Paper Subdivision Development Plan Reference Group

The project reached a significant milestone this month, with Council issuing the tender for the complete engineering design for roads, drainage and reticulated water and sewer, power and other associated infrastructure for the subdivision. We hope to award the design contract next month and expect this work to be completed by the middle of next year. This will allow us to get accurate costings and develop funding options, which we can discuss with landowners prior to finalising a development plan and holding a landowner ballot.

We have had consultants prepare a number of studies to help inform subdivision and infrastructure design. These include ecology, archaeology, geotechnical and bushfire.

At November’s meeting, Council’s Chief Building Surveyor, Greg Brook and Principal Building Surveyor Gordon Dryburgh provided an update to the group on how Council’s compliance and building teams will be working together in early 2019 to undertake assessments of existing dwellings, and ascertain which ones may be able to be brought up to a satisfactory level of compliance. Gordon and Greg outlined how they will be looking to use the appropriate building codes for the time that a structure was built, i.e. if it is deemed a structure was built in 1980, the structure will be assessed against the building regulation used at that time, not 2018.

In the coming months, Council is planning on carrying out temporary improvements to a number of unformed roads (namely Pirama, Tulkaba and Karakunba roads) to improve access and trafficability (similar to work carried out on Waropara Road in 2016).