MILDURA Council has given the go-ahead for a storage shed to be established in a farming zone despite concerns the move would undermine the credibility of the council.
Payless Skips applied to the council for the construction of a 24-metre by 12-metre shed in Fifth Street, Merbein, to house four commercial transport vehicles and two private vehicles.
Councillors were this week told the proposal did not align with numerous state and local agricultural policies, as well as the farming zone’s purpose to protect agricultural land.
The plan was recommended for refusal, but Cr Glenn Milne said the business was already operating from the property and “we’re really just talking about parking trucks in a shed”.
“This is a small home business … we’re in very hard times financially with COVID — there are people struggling to run businesses,” Cr Milne said.
“We need to be encouraging small business … this is about giving a business owner an opportunity to continue to operate what he is doing and just house his trucks.
“If we don’t do this, then those drivers take the trucks home and they park them in a residential area … and yet what he wants to do is park them where there are no residents … so this is a win-win for the community and the business owner.”
Cr Stefano de Pieri agreed.
“It’s a safe proposition,” he said.
“Merbein is an area that requires as much economic development as possible and if we can facilitate a small business I’m all for it.
“I don’t think that what is proposed has deleterious impact on the area, so I think it is a pretty safe bet.”
Cr Mark Eckel said the land had been free of horticulture “for a long time” and the applicant had no inclination of growing produce on the property.
“It comes down to the rights of a landowner and the rights of small business and the opportunity of a person being able to stay on his land and provide an income of some description off land that at the moment doesn’t give him any income or doesn’t give the community any income,” he said.
“I don’t for one minute suggest that this sets a precedent for any further applications for work on farming land in the MOIA (Mildura Older Irrigated Area).”
However, Cr Jodi Reynolds said she could not support the proposal when it did not meet the criteria of the farming zone.
“While I am absolutely sympathetic to the situation of the applicant, to approve this application would result in the creation of a precedent that would undermine the credibility of this council and bring into question the legitimacy of any of our land use zones,” she said.
Cr Helen Healy she was disappointed that she could not support the revised motion moved by Cr Milne.
“It’s a well-known fact that I am a champion of small business, particularly in these times,” she said.
“I cannot, as a councillor representing my community, allow this motion to go through without the experts among our staff to have checked it first.”
The planning application was passed six votes to three.
