The Yass Council has recently applied for a grant which, if successful, will provide two million dollars of funding to be used for open space projects in town. The grant is a part of the Public Space Legacy Program (PSLP) and was submitted in September of 2020.
The Application submitted is conditional on two factors, the first being the improvement of processing times of Development Applications (DA’s), and the second being projects for open space legacy works already being identified.
These projects are the Yass Gorge Cultural Trail $411,600, Chinaman’s Creek ‘Interpretive and Educational’ trail and wetlands $1,041,200, and an Adventure Playground at Riverbank Park $547,200.
The Council signed up for a new E-Planning Digital Services Planning Portal before September which made them eligible for the grant. The Portal is designed to allow DA’s to be submitted online rather than a physical copy through the council chambers. The Portal has been discussed for many years now according to the General Manager Chris Berry and has finally been implemented in the Yass Valley Council.
“It required people to become familiar with the system; some of our staff have done various training sessions on the planning portal. We have recognised that to improve performance we are going to have to add extra resources to the planning team to be able to process the DA’s and show improvements in the processing times,” Mr Berry said.
The Council has recently allocated an extra $104,000 in funds towards additional assessment resources to assist with meetings its obligations under the program. These involve a combination of town planners and surveyors to help approve the DA’s allowing other staff to work quickly and efficiently on the paperwork.
The main benefit of the new Planning Portal is its reduction of double handling of the DA’s and streamlining the process. Previously a person would need to submit a hardcopy through the customer service centre. Someone would then need to load it onto the internal system, which would then be registered and allocated to an officer.
“The idea of the planning portal is that the person who is lodging the application uploads a lot of that information directly into the database and streamlines the front end of the process and gets to the planner or surveyor far quicker than going through a series of internal steps,” Mr Berry added.
It also allows the council to electronically send the information to an external agency which can be automated to speed up the process.
This new system should allow Council to meet the conditions of the grant approval by reducing the gross median assessment times by 10% by December 2020 and by 15% by June 2021.
The engagement of temporary assessment staff commenced late October, which will also help to process applications faster and more efficiently. An audit was completed on two DA’s from September, and the new practice has been found satisfactory thus far.
As for the open space legacy projects that were chosen for the grant, the council had three projects already planned. These areas were identified and designed in the past and had been waiting for the funds to be available to proceed. These projects are the Yass Gorge Cultural Trail, Chinaman’s Creek ‘Interpretive and Educational’ trail and wetlands, and an Adventure Playground at Riverbank Park. The Council has approximately estimated the costs for these projects as being $411,600, $1,041,200 and $547,200 respectively.
The Yass Gorge has had a lot of work done to it over some time mainly by volunteers with government funding. It was a hotspot for exotic weeds in the area which have since been controlled. The recent flood that came through caused a lot of damage to the area around Flat Rock. The Council had recently renewed an under-river waterpipe, and the flood scoured it out. The Gorge is home to critically endangered Natural Temperate Grassland habitat.
The plan for the Yass Gorge is to create 4km of decomposed granite pathways through the Yass Gorge to provide access to the area. This trail will link to existing tracks along the River. The trail will have geological, archaeological, historical and environmental storyboards along the way to provide educational experiences to the public.
“It contains many flora and fauna that are found nowhere else in NSW. Mainly because the Gorge is so steep and was never grazed, so a lot of the plants there are pre-European and are still there to this day,” said Ross Webster ex-president of Yass Landcare and former Councillor.
Chinaman’s Creek is planned to have construction done on the wetlands along the Creek and to provide walking trail links between the Creek and the Yass River. It is also designed to create nature-based play and interpretation of Aboriginal and European settlement of the area.
The Chinaman’s Creek runs from the back of the sales yards hill right through the middle of town and around 12 years ago underwent some rehabilitation. Two new drainage pipes and a rock frontage were added to help the Creek run better.
“It’s a badly eroded system through the middle of town. It takes a lot of stormwater and road run off to the Yass River. Over the years, it has eroded a huge quantity of mainly soil and gravel and put it in the Yass river which has seen the depth of the weir reduced remarkably,” Mr Webster said.
The Creek is responsible for washing weeds down into Yass River. The weeds can be seen lining Chinaman’s Creek, and by going to the River, they get washed downstream and grow all along the bank. The length of Chinamans Creek is around 2km, and the grant money would provide the funds necessary to complete a clean-up of the Creek to promote better health of our local waterways.
Finally, a new Adventure Playground is planned for Riverbank Park in accordance with the ‘Everyone Can Play’ guidelines. The plan includes pathways, flying fox and modular units, slides, tactile surfaces, sensory elements, climbing wall and an area for a ropes platform. The adventure park plan was submitted recently and was the perfect project in the pipeline if the grant money is secured.
Mr Berry is hopeful that word will come in the next few weeks or months regarding the Application for the grant.
“We have met our obligations as far as lodging the Application is concerned. There are no clear timelines from the department on when they will make their decision,” said GM Berry.
The General Manager is confident Council will meet the requirements to receive the two million dollars in grant money to upgrade open space projects in the Yass Community.
By Ryan Betts
