Village of Gundaroo 'torn apart' by grazing land rezoning proposals

Residents of a small community north of Canberra say it has been being torn apart by two proposals to rezone rural grazing land for housing.

People living in Gundaroo said the village had been split in two, with accusations of physical altercations, letter drops attacking the opponents of the developments, and an intense war of words between the two sides.

More than 100 public submissions have been delivered to the Yass Valley Council on the proposals.

Anne Barwick from the Gundaroo Community Association said the proposals included land for 130 dwellings, 65 at each end of the town.

"What you would see isn't a lovely little entry to a village that's nestled into this area," she told 730 ACT.

"You are going to see a whole lot of houses and you might find the village if you are lucky.

"As they stand we want council to reject the proposals."

If the proposals are approved Gundaroo could double in size, but the rezoning could be staged according to Yass Valley Council.

'This antagonism really tears a village apart'

Retiree Chris Adams has watched the controversy escalate from his home which adjoins one of the proposed rezoning areas.

"There has been some physical pushing and shoving and things of that kind," he said.

"There has been a strong bias in favour of those who are against the rezoning, and I think that is out of proportion to what the village overall is about.

"The vitriol and unreasonable language of the anti-developers are starting to drive me towards the developers.

"I think they are being given an unnecessarily bad and hard time, and my sympathies are now starting to go towards them."

Mr Adams said the development of the land could provide benefits for the community.

"If there's further development then I would hope there might be more services that might come to the village that we might not otherwise get," he said.

Gundaroo accomodation developer Lana Mitchell has thrown her support behind the developers.

"The rezoning is simply adding a few houses on either end of the village," she said.

"It is not going to no longer be a village. It is these sort of statements that are filled with emotion and sentimentality which don't help the situation.

"It is this antagonism or nastiness that really tears a village apart."

Both of the developers behind the proposals declined to be interviewed by 730 ACT.

'We are going to lose our rural outlook'

Canberra commuter Abram Hayes has lived next to one of the proposed rezoning areas for the past five years.

"We had a rural outlook. We were looking forward to enjoying that outlook and we were searching for a different lifestyle," he said.

"If this goes ahead obviously we are going to lose our rural outlook and there will be extra pressures on the village.

"We are going to end up with a town of quite a significant size, which doesn't have access to water supplies for people to drink, and doesn't have access to other basic services like sewerage."

Calls for Gundaroo master plan

Opponents of the proposed rezoning, including Anne Barwick, have called for a Gundaroo master plan, floodplain study and conservation vegetation plan to be drafted and implemented ahead of any rezoning.

"That's going to take a couple of years but it needs to be done properly for the whole district," she said.

But Ms Mitchell does not agree.

"Many septic systems are very old and maybe not so functional, but that has nothing really to do with new developments that will bring 21st century technologies for wastewater handling," she said.

The village's existing problems with leaky septic systems and flooding are expected to be discussed by Yass Valley Council next month.

A council spokesman said the issues raised in the public submissions were more important than the number for or against rezoning or where the authors of the submissions reside.

The council said they had received 130 written submissions and there had been two public meetings about rezoning which both attracted more than 100 people.

A decision about the rezoning proposals is not expected until next year.