Preliminary plans for the development of land on Golden Valley Road (reported on extensively by The Bugle) show up to 49 blocks being accommodated on the 4.6ha of land on Jamberoo’s eastern edge.

“The preliminary design is necessary to engage consultants to do all the studies that are required as inputs,” says Lawson Fredericks, Director of the Fountaindale Group which is developing the site.

“We hope to have a DA ready to lodge by the end of March.”

As part of that process, a number of studies have to be undertaken to cover such issues as traffic, stormwater and drainage, road engineering and aboriginal heritage.

“Now we are in the DA phase, the layout is going to be driven by the outcome of technical studies and the regulatory environment.”

Mr Fredericks says the intention is to go above and beyond what is required by the new Jamberoo DCP.

“We will be putting in place additional architectural controls so the end housing is as sympathetic as possible to the character of the existing village.”

He says they have learnt from the Chapel Hill development that other residents don’t like the size of the houses that went on the 800m2 blocks.

“On this site [which also has 800m2 blocks] there is now the requirement for view corridors, so we will be creating building envelopes on each title to show where you can build.

“That will restrict the size of the houses to a certain degree.”

His company is developing the land for the owner, with the purchasers building their own houses.

The preliminary plan, which incorporates a perimeter road on the rural side of the site, was shown to the November meeting of the Jamberoo Valley Residents and Ratepayers Association.

“People were appreciative of us coming to them at this early stage,” says Mr Fredericks.

Following the developers’ presentation, the minutes of the meeting record JVRRA members voted to continue the discussion with the developers after further input from technical reports.

Several JVRRA members stressed the importance of making it clearly understood that the process of early participation in consultation is not to be taken as an endorsement of final decisions made by the developer.