ORANGE Grove residents packed out the the City of Gosnells council chambers last week and applauded a decision to reject a place of worship and community centre.
More than 50 people attended the council meeting in anticipation of the decision.
The community centre was going to be used by Shirdi Sainath Perth – a Hindu organisation – for community services such as blood donations.
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READ NOWShirdi Sainath Perth own the land and there is a small house on there at the moment.
According to its president Sai Krishna, they were unsure about what to do next.
“We are upset and we may have to sell the land,” he said.
“Once they rejected it, why waste time and money?”
Most of Orange Grove is zoned as general rural.
The City received 62 public submissions, all which objected to the proposal, with 15 of them being in the consultation area.
Gosnells Mayor Olwen Searle and several other councillors said something needed to be done to address the concerns of residents.
“You don’t buy a house in Orange Grove, you buy a lifestyle,” Cr Searle said.
The decision comes after the council approved a driver training centre in May on Kelvin Road, which again saw Orange Grove residents pack out the chambers.
City of Gosnells chief executive Ian Cowie said the council was trying to keep the area as rural as possible.
“The driver training centre was quite unusual in that it was proposed in a small area of Orange Grove,” he said.
“Much of Orange Grove is significantly quieter and more rural in nature and it is very unlikely that the council would have supported such a proposal if it had been proposed in the bona fide rural sections of Orange Grove.”
Mr Cowie said the City was reviewing its planning guidelines for Orange Grove and would try to ensure the planning system supported retention of rural amenity.
Orange Grove resident Andrew French said the council was generally trying to do the right thing.
“Gosnells do want to do the right thing by Orange Grove. I was slightly encouraged by what the councillors said,” he said.