Residents of Bungendore will keep their council-operated community swimming pool but students will have to remain in demountable classrooms after an amended proposal for the town's new high school went up for public viewing.
Meanwhile, opponents of the contentious centre-town location for the high school have vowed to fight on against the proposal, maintaining that aspects of it remain unlawful.
Bungendore remains a country town divided over the proposed high school location, a legacy of disgraced NSW deputy Premier John Barilaro, the former member for the NSW seat of Monaro.
It was Mr Barilaro who opponents say used his influence to fast-track the centre-town location for the school to bolster his re-election plans, using the compulsory acquisition of some properties owned by the Queanbeyan-Palerang Shire Council to create what was described as an "education precinct" to cater for around 450 students.
Parts of the original proposal cleaved off sections of the historic Mick Sherd oval, a shared community asset in the town centre, removed the pool and several council-owned buildings.
Fast-growing Bungendore, now with well over 5000 residents, many of them young families seeking bigger blocks on more affordable land than in the nearby ACT, has been in desperate need of a high school for years.
The NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces granted consent for the planning proposal in January 2023 and a temporary high school opened last year for Term 1, operating out of multiple demountable classrooms plonked into the playground of the primary school.
But the administrative processes behind the proposal were found to be fundamentally flawed in a case which went before the NSW Land and Environment Court last year.
So it was back to the drawing board, and seven months on the latest amended proposal on exhibition has removed all works and structures on council-owned crown land, changed the vehicle access, retained the swimming pool and reconfigured the buildings.
The more condensed site means the previously proposed combined gymnasium and school hall has been shelved.
The amended version leaves the Mick Sherd oval untouched and the entire perimeter of the high school will be fenced off.
This proposal will be on display until July 22. Submissions have been invited but no further public hearings are scheduled.
Majara Street, which currently links Turallo Terrace to Gibraltar Street - one of the town's major throughfares - now will be closed off completely and become a pedestrian-only "school avenue" splitting the proposed high school's four main classroom blocks.
One of the more contentious elements to the new proposal is the potential for major traffic congestion on an already busy eastern end to Gibraltar Street.
The transport plan projects around 180 students a day will be bussed to the main entry of the high school, in addition to those buses already dropping children off at the adjacent primary school.
Curiously, the new transport plan does not address the potential safety issues posed by the extra volume of heavy vehicles, mixed with hundreds of pedestrians, bicycle riders and private vehicle drop-offs of young children.
