Concept consent granted for Tremain's Mill redevelopment

On Wednesday night, Bathurst Regional Council resolved to give concept consent to the concept development application that outlines the future redevelopment of the heritage site.

Concept consent only provides in-principle support of the plans, and does not permit any demolition or construction works to commence.

That will be subject to future development applications for the various stages of the project.

Councillors agreed that the developer's plans would transform the former mill precinct in lower Keppel Street and potentially result in enormous economic and tourism benefits for the region.

"It ticks so many boxes as a mixed use, adaptive re-use project, along with meeting many of the aspirational objectives in our strategic planning documents, including protecting and preserving our heritage buildings," Cr Marg Hogan said.

They also praised the developer for amending the plans for the site in response to community concerns.

Changes to the proposal include reducing the height of a proposed hotel with Keppel Street frontage from 18 metres to 13.5 metres, and changing the intended use of the proposed building fronting Havannah Street to a hotel building.

"The proponents are clearly listening to the feedback," Cr Andrew Smith said.

Prior to the discussion of the business papers, councillors heard from members of the community during public forum, where the majority of speakers addressed the Tremain's Mill plans.

A number of them called for council to defer a decision on the matter to give councillors more time to consider the implications of the proposal, and most speakers raised concerns about car parking.

As it stands, the developer has proposed to provide a total of 46 on-site car parking spaces.

The number falls well short of the requirement for a development of this size, and at this time, there are no definitive plans locked in to address the shortfall.

Although councillors decided to grant concept consent, they made it clear they weren't satisfied with the amount of car parking proposed at this time.

However, they said other parking options would be explored by the developer.

"I accept we have some hurdles to overcome regarding parking, but they will be addressed as described with future DAs," Cr Hogan said.

READ ALSO: Council papers show discussion about multi-storey car park in association with Tremains Mill redevelopment

Cr Warren Aubin, a member of council's traffic committee, was of a similar view.

"I think there is scope to increase parking quite adequately and I'd like to see this done," he said.

"As it stands at the moment, I'm all for this development and I really hope it goes ahead."

Now that concept consent has been provided for the overall vision for Tremain's Mill, the developer will need to continue working on more detailed plans and further development applications that propose the physical works.

The vision for the precinct includes:

Council's resolution on April 19 came with 19 conditions of consent.

These include, but are not limited to, the pedestrian space and ancillary through-site links needing to be publicly accessible, and that future DAs shall demonstrate that the proposed development will maintain the stability of neighbouring properties.