Almost seven months since the controversial land rezone for Huntingfield was approved, Kingborough residents are still awaiting a master plan for the development, despite an expected release date of October 2019.
Independent Member for Nelson, Meg Webb MLC questioned the State Government on March 17 about the progress on the master plan, asking when this would be released for public consultation and how the State Government planned to advertise to the community that the consultation process was open.
Ms Webb also questioned when the government planned to lodge an application for development with Kingborough Council, when the government expected the first homes would be ready and asked what research had been undertaken to determine the impact on roads and traffic, public transport, health and education services.
A letter dated the next day was sent from the office of the Minister for Housing and Planning, the Honourable Roger Jaensch MP to those who had made a submission regarding the Huntingfield rezone which stated that order had been completed and came into effect as of the same date, March 18, five months after the matter passed through Parliament.
“Further opportunities for providing input on the future development of the area will be available through the master planning process which will soon be commenced by the Department of Communities Tasmania,” stated the letter, revealing that no work had yet begun on the Huntingfield Master Plan.
The letter also advised the recipients that “opportunities for providing input will be afforded through the assessment of the future development applications including those covering the subdivision of the area”, although no timeframes were given as to when applications are expected to be lodged.
The Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania (PMAT) claim that the length of the approval process has now taken a similar amount of time to the standard planning scheme amendment process.
“PMAT’s position on this has always been that the master plan should have been developed with community consultation before the land was rezoned,” wrote PMAT on April 20.
“Briefings provided to the Upper House members at the time indicated that a Huntingfield Master Plan would be released in October 2019.
“This did not happen.
“The community asked for the rezoning to go through the standard planning scheme amendment process, which would have taken around nine months, rather than the fast track process, which has now taken a similar amount of time,” PMAT stated.

 Pictured above: The Huntingfield Master Plan showing details of the proposed development has still not been released, almost seven months after the indicitave release date given of October 2019. (PS)