Up to one million birds per week would be processed at an $83 million plant proposed for Goulburn.
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After years of planning and studies, the state significant project pegged for 52 Sinclair Street, North Goulburn has been placed on public exhibition.
Woodlands Ridge Poultry, operated by Ed Wehbe and based on Gurrundah Road, has lodged the development application. It proposes to build a cold storage and distribution centre, a poultry processing plant, childcare centre and other associated earthworks and infrastructure on the 82,606 square metre site, which Mr Wehbe previously purchased.
The project would be split across two stages and employ 264 people.
Mr Wehbe did not return requests for comment. However the application's environmental impact statement states that at peak operation, the plant would process one million broilers a week. Poultry, including chickens, turkey, geese and quail, are proposed to be brought to the site from broiler farms for slaughter, processing and packaging. The plant proposes to operate 24 hours a day across two shifts.
"Stage one includes only meat processing and consists of deliveries of slaughtered broilers from off site taken to the delivery bay on the north-eastern corner of the facility," the application states.
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"Here the slaughtered broilers will be portioned, de-boned and packaged for temporary refrigerated storage and final dispatch."
Stage two adds an abattoir to deliver slaughtered birds to the meat processing facility handling some 12,000 birds an hour.
The study authors, KDC, acknowledge that Sinclair Street is not an approved B-double route and would have to be reclassified. A separate application will be lodged.
The consultants estimate 150 heavy vehicle trips daily. Northbound vehicles would travel along Common Street and access the Hume Highway via Sydney Road. However, southbound ones would traverse Sydney Road, Union, Reynolds, Grafton, Sloane Streets and then Garroorigang Road to access the Hume Highway.
In preliminary comments on the application, the council has asked whether any consideration has been given to an alternative southbound route, avoiding the city.
The site spans three zones - the B6 enterprise corridor, RU6 transition and E3 environmental management. While the cold storage facility, distribution centre and childcare facility are permissable with consent, the poultry processing is not. However, the applicant argues that as a state significant development, consent can be granted for the total development, despite one aspect being prohibited.
The council last year scored $7 million state funding to develop the North Goulburn industrial precinct. It will pay for infrastructure upgrades, including at the Common Street/Sydney Road intersection, and rezoning to industrial to facilitate several enterprises wanting to move into the area.
Some 100 people live in close proximity to the site. Consultants letterbox dropped 150 residents and businesses in the area and held two Goulburn drop-in sessions earlier this year. A report stated that people were mainly concerned with traffic impacts. But odour, noise, flooding, waste, operating hours, why the site was chosen and job creation were also raised.
The council is trying to lure the poultry industry from western Sydney where land pressures are coming to bear on operators. However, the council is yet to formally respond to the Woodlands Ridge application.
- View it on public exhibition until October 23 at planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/11546
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Louise Thrower
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
