A Romsey greyhound trainer has won her bid to continue operating next door to land earmarked for a major housing development.
Macedon Ranges council granted trainer Helen Ivers a 10-year permit in September 2015 against an officer’s recommendation to refuse an application for a retrospective permit for the operation in Knox Road.
Ms Ivers had kept as many as 35 greyhounds on the property – which includes two large, air-conditioned buildings, whelping kennels, a training track, three runs and fenced yards – since 2009 without planning approval.
At the time of the council’s decision, developer Romsey Property Group representative Ross Coster expressed fears about the loss of amenity for future estate residents.
He said some of the more than 200 houses to be built in the Lomandra estate over the next four years would be inside the 500-metre buffer zone around the greyhound property recommended by the Environment Protection Authority.
Romsey Property Group, challenged the decision at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on the grounds that the greyhound operation was “incompatible with future residential use” of the neighbouring estate.
Concerns over the noise and smell from the kennels were brought up by the developer’s lawyers.
But the tribunal upheld the council’s decision to grant the permit.
“I do not consider the proposal will significantly prejudice the use of surrounding land, given noise impacts from the enclosed kennels can be mitigated and noise emissions from open kennels and outdoor areas can be appropriately managed,” VCAT member Christopher Harty said in a report.
Ms Ivers also successfully applied to change two of the 16 imposed conditions on the permit that required her to collect, store, treat and dispose of all solid and liquid waste from the animals.
She unsuccessfully sought to amend the 10-year limit on the permit which she said “unfairly” limited the operation.
