Residents' traffic concerns remain over Arthur Kaine Drive DA for 59 new homes

The 2.54 acre site sits opposite the end of the airport runway on Arthur Kaine Dr and the DA from Canberra-based developer Prasun Banerjee through his company SHC MU3 Pty Ltd has plans for a total of 59 dwellings comprising 27 townhouses and 32 apartments divided into three blocks.

The plans show the entrance and exit to be via Ocean Dr, a cul de sac, and the traffic assessment by Sydney based traffic engineers Solution 1 estimates there will be 314.5 daily trips from the 59 dwellings.

"It is perceived that these rates are negligible at one vehicle trip every 1.8 to 2.3minutes and are not anticipated to generate any significant adverse impacts on the local road network," Solution 1 said in its report.

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But Ocean Dr resident Dennis Souter said it will amount to a 60 per cent increase in traffic on Fishpen. He said cars and buses leaving the caravan park and the Black Dolphin had to get on to Arthur Kaine Drive and the Dunns Lane area would become gridlocked.

In September 2021 32 residents of Ocean Dr put their names to a letter highlighting their objections to the DA which they say is an "over-development". They believe the building bulk and scale is not in keeping with the size of the allotment, and the amount of increased traffic through the proposed Ocean Dr entrance, to the development, will result in noise and increased safety concerns.

Mr Souter said the design was not suited to the development's prominent position as a gateway from the south into Merimbula.

Resident Ken Carman said last Christmas, traffic got so bad in Ocean Dr that cars were having to back out along the road to get out.

"The council's not even going to be able to collect garbage because people will be parked on the road and backed up in the cul de sac," Mr Carman said.

Tim Duggan whose parents have owned a holiday home in Ocean Dr since 1978, said it was "so inappropriate" that the main access point was Ocean Dr and said it should be Arthur Kaine Dr.

"This DA is inconsistent with so many things traffic, access, sunlight; it's starting to feel like Surfers (Paradise) on the coast," he said.

"The dead end, narrow street (Ocean Dr) should not be used for access," Mr Duggan said.

Because it sold the land, council has referred the decision making on the DA to the Southern Regional Planning Panel. While some elements of the plans have been revised, using Ocean Dr as the entrance and exit for the site has remained.

The changes include an increase to onsite car parking to provide 132 spaces, the apartment block at the rear of the site has been rotated so that it is no longer parallel to the side block boundary which the proponents said would increase the separation with an apartment block on the adjoining site.

The area of communal open space has been enlarged from 2408m2 to 2612m2.

An asset protection zone was granted along the southern border of the block and an easement made to provide a public path from Arthur Kaine Dr to Ocean Dr.

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