Charlotte Varcoe
THE District Council of Grant has rejected a request to rescind an existing Land Management Agreement for the second time.
A landowner of a property on Pinehall Avenue applied for the agreement to be rescinded to allow its current tenant – Serene Country Living – to purchase a part of the land.
A letter presented to council detailed the recent agreement between the two parties for Serene Country Living to purchase 1.387 hectares of the property for their supported accommodation facility.
The proposed purchase would include the current buildings and immediate curtilage area.
The letter details the current agreement prohibits future land division of the property and ensured the self-contained flat was not used for commercial purposes.
The agreement was labelled as “counter-intuitive” given the provisions of the Planning and Design Code.
According to the letter, the design code requires “new dwellings in the rural zone to be located on an allotment” with a minimum area of 20 hectares and to “be used in association with primary production on the same allotment”.
In 2022 council approached the landowners to formally acquire 500 square meters of the property for the purpose of facilitating the upgrade of the junction of Pinehall Avenue and O’Leary Road.
District Council of Grant environmental works manager Leith McEvoy said management agreements were to be used and let smaller subdivisions occur around existing houses.
“It is also for the balance to protect farming activity,” Mr McEvoy said.
“Serene Country Living now occupies the buildings on the property and were keen to subdivide off their part which involves a long driveway and the buildings are right in the middle of that allotment so the land division would look a bit different.”
He said the landowners were “happy to protect it” by way of the management agreement which meant there could not be a future house on the property to protect the farmland.
Mr McEvoy said Serene Country Living could then purchase their allotment of the property in the future and keep upgrading their activities.
“Land Management Agreements and the planning system in general is very much about protecting farmland across the whole state and obviously we live in a fairly rich farming area and we have some very significant farmland which needs to be protected for future generations,” Mr McEvoy said.
“Historically there have been a lot of subdivisions and a lot of houses approved within that 15 to 25km radius of Mount Gambier.
“The council is trying to be more responsible and act appropriately to protect that into the future.”
During the meeting, elected members discussed the agenda item with Councillor Barry Kuhl stating if it had passed, the community would perceive it as in the “interest of council” due to the 500 square metre land arrangement.
Cr Kuhl stated he believed it should not be rescinded and Serene Country Living and the landowner should be “doing what they have been doing for years”.
Other councillors also agreed there was a lack of information provided by the applicant.
The landowner declined to comment.
