Retirement village and units given approval

A TOOWOOMBA developer has been approved to create a new retirement home and townhouse development next to an historic homestead in the city’s southern suburbs.

Barry Bernoth and Oak Tree Group received approval from the Toowoomba Regional Council last week for a 51-unit retirement facility and a 43-unit townhouse development in Middle Ridge.

The development is slated for land next to Gabbinbar Homestead, which is owned by Mr Bernoth.

The proposal will be split up into two stages, with the first section featuring a subdivision into three lots and the construction of the retirement facility.

While the official documents place the development land on Ramsay St, access to the site will actually come from Large St.

The approval comes nearly a year after residents along Large St rallied against the village’s introduction, citing traffic and noise issues.

Because the application was considered “code-assessable” rather than “impact-assessable”, there was no formal process for resident to submit against the development.

But TRC senior planner Krys den Hertog said in his report the development generally complied with the council’s planning scheme.

“The proposed development has been assessed against relevant assessment benchmarks and found to generally comply, or able to be conditioned to comply,” he wrote.

“It is therefore recommended that the development application be approved subject to reasonable and relevant conditions.”