THE City of Greater Bendigo will give an Eaglehawk-based business 60 days to cease current operations or appeal to a higher authority after failing to get the right permits.
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The decision came after 18 months of deliberations triggered when the council found the business was operating without the correct approvals.
Councillors knocked back a retrospective application for an equipment hire, sales business as well as site upgrades at 128 Victoria Street on Monday night.
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The council had received 24 objections to the business's use of the site, including from nearby residents concerned about amenity, dust and noise.
Some objections centred on the visibility of shipping containers stacked as high as 7.77 metres near the site's boundary.
On Monday, some councillors argued the business should have been able to keep operating without change in a town where it was increasingly difficult to find industrial land.
Councillor Margaret O'Rourke pointed to a briefing report drawn up by council staff that spoke to many of the concerns objectors had raised and that had found the application would be acceptable under the planning scheme.
"There were also no objections from the Victoria Street residents living closest to the site, which I thought was interesting," she said.
"I've been to visit the site on at least three occasions, at different times of the day, to see different activities taking place.
"The noise levels were not significant at the times I was there, nor the dust emissions. The traffic levels were also quite low."
But councillor Dave Fagg argued the shipping containers, in particular, created amenity issues.
"Even though they are being constantly rotated they create the appearance of permanent buildings," he said, adding that he did not believe setbacks or landscaping would fix the problem.
Cr Fagg was among councillors who argued previous councils had zoned the land to be a buffer between homes and public land on one side, and heavier industrial uses on the other.
"The question before us is not whether industry can occur at this site. It's if this land is compatible with other land uses," he said.
He was concerned operations at the site were not in keeping with what they had envisioned both with the land's zoning and a separate overlay they had added.
Four of the eight other Bendigo councillors agreed and the permits were refused.
The business could choose to appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
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