It’s the second car wash to be developed in town, with residents originally opposing the development application back in 2017, citing numerous concerns with the location.
Council received 43 objections at the October 2017 monthly meeting, however councillors voted 5-2 in favour of the development.
The development application was subject to 24 conditions including operating within the NSW noise legislation and complying with the guidelines for outdoor lighting.
Corowa local Peter Wright OAM said the community’s concerns have not been addressed by Federation Council.
“The biggest problem is the issuing of a construction certificate without apparent compliance to the conditions laid out in the DA approval of October 17, 2017,” Mr Wright said.
“My fear is that this car wash is going ahead despite it being non-compliant.
“Council has failed to act on the communities’ concerns which include, increased traffic, the adverse effect on children using the park, graffiti, noise at night, undesirables using the park area under the cover of four-metre-high walls, headlights on cars at night and spray drift from washing vehicles.”
After speaking with anxious residents living near the skatepark, Mr Wright said the car wash location was “terrible”.
“It will negatively affect the ambience of the neighbourhood,” he said.
“The only acceptable outcome is to halt construction until all the conditions of the development have been met.
“Does the community benefit from this development? No, it doesn’t. The only beneficiary is the developer. The rest of the community will pay for this if it’s allowed to continue.
“This event further highlights the excessive delegated authority that is in place at Federation Council.
“Delegated authority within Federation Council is used far too much. The responsibility for the decisions made falls on the councillors and is not the role of the executives to make these decisions.
“Councillors need to take their obligations to look after the best interests of the community seriously and not palm it off to the executives to make the decisions. This is how mistakes like this happen.
“I hope this development isn’t being rushed through because of the five-year limit on an approved development application.
Mr Wright said the developer has had almost five years to comply with the requirements of the DA but he believes there is a failure to provide enough adequate information.
Federation Council General Manager Adrian Butler said council is in receipt of several letters expressing concerns regarding the development and staff are investigating the queries and concerns made and replies will be provided in the near future.
“Council will monitor the development as it proceeds to ensure compliance with any conditions of the approval and to ensure that any other reasonable concerns are addressed where possible,” he said.
“Please note the council as the meeting body, has no powers to certify construction works, and cannot issue construction certificates, these can only be issued by staff who are accredited.
“This is not an excessive delegation issue as claimed by Mr Wright, nor is it councillors passing too much authority onto staff, it is the law,” he said.
“However, all conditions of the consent, unless varied by a modified consent, are required to be met.”