For Brendan Trevaskis and his father, Graeme, the family fine merino sheep farm on the edge of Belconnen is paradise.
"This isn't a job. I tell people I get to come to work with my best mate and this view is better than any office," Brendan Trevaskis said at Wagtail Park, which looks out south-east towards the growing suburbs of the Molonglo Valley.
But the long-standing farming family is worried the government's plan to build a new, permanent green waste facility on their boundary will threaten one of the territory's few remaining working farms and jeopardise the environment.
The ACT government has proposed to change planning laws to allow a permanent green waste facility on the site of a former vineyard off Stockdill Drive, claiming it is the only viable location.
The long-running Parkwood Road green waste facility will need to close as the suburbs of Ginninderry continue to expand but the Trevaskis family believe the government has not done enough to study the environmental impact of a permanent facility on the heavily sloped site.
The government has relied on old and limited reports and failed to properly assess the sloping site's potential to generate harmful runoff that would quickly enter a creek that provides water for livestock and then feeds the Molonglo River, the Trevaskis family says.
The proposed change to the planning laws would allow a "recycling facility" and "bulk landscape supplies" as assessable uses for the site at block 1653, a rural block that housed a now-dead vineyard that has since passed back to government ownership.
The change would allow planners to sign off on a permanent green waste facility. A temporary facility had already been approved for three years on the site, prompting a mediation process in which the Trevaskis family won concessions.
Now the Trevaskis family is unclear whether those concessions would be maintained if the government makes a new development application if the permissible land uses are changed.
A report prepared by the City and Environment Directorate said block 1653 was the only viable site within Belconnen for a proposed green waste facility, citing a 2022 study that considered options for relocating the Mitchell waste transfer station.
"Additionally, the block is considered to be of relatively low ecological, cultural, and heritage significance, reflecting its historical use as a vineyard," the City and Environment Directorate report said.
The 2022 design options study, completed by consultants Stantec, was commissioned as a "a feasibility study into upgrades to the Mitchell Resource Management Centre (MRMC) and identification of future waste sites in north Canberra".
The report said the site now being considered for the green waste facility as presenting the lowest ecological, heritage and environmental risks but warned there would be a significant impact on "local visual amenity".
"It is however noted that this block is likely to have better development prospects in the medium to long term as the adjacent residential development in Ginninderry continues. The commitment of the site for an [resource management centre] facility needs to be considered within this context," the report said.
The Canberra Times on Thursday asked the ACT government why the proposed major plan amendment relied on the 2022 study rather than commissioning a specific study on green waste sites, and why a full ecological report had seemingly not been commissioned.
Brendan Trevaskis said he understood the need for a new green waste facility, but urged the government to reconsider its proposed location. A different site on the same block would potentially avoid the steep incline close to the creek, he said.
When a senior official in the Suburban Land Agency wrote to the National Capital Authority in January seeking the support of the authority's board for a permanent green waste facility, he acknowledged the 2022 study had been broad.
"The study applied a rigorous multi-criteria analysis across potential sites in northern Canberra, considering factors such as buffer distances from sensitive uses, access to transport routes, environmental and heritage constraints, servicing requirements, and strategic alignment with district planning objectives," the letter said.
The letter also said: "Importantly, the Report explicitly identified Block 1582 as the most suitable location for the relocation of the Parkwood Road green waste facility."
The National Capital Authority's chief planner replied 22 days later, in February, confirming it had agreed to the ACT's requested land uses for the site.
The 2022 Stantec report recommended increasing green waste capacity at the site but warned "the site is steep and will require significant earthworks, existing proposed footprint utilises flatter portions of the site" and "opportunity cost of the land for other uses needs to be considered for the site given its proximity to the Ginninderry development".
City Services Minister Tara Cheyne has said an exhaustive search for a permanent site found nothing better than the proposed temporary site.
"It was initially proposed to be a temporary site for the green waste facility, to help bridge the gap between the facility on Parkwood Road having to close and a permanent facility being able to open," Ms Cheyne wrote on social media.
"That site is also currently zoned as NUZ1 Broadacre. This meant that a permanent facility couldn't legally be approved for that location - but a temporary one could.
"We proceeded with that approval so we had assurances the drop-off would keep running while the slower permanent pathway was worked through."
Belconnen residents first learned the government had identified the site off Stockdill Drive for a green waste facility in early 2022, when they were notified pre-development application consultation would soon begin.
The government in 2021 granted a reprieve to the Parkwood Road green waste facility, which has been run for decades by Canberra Sand and Gravel, weeks out from its slated closure.
The impending shutdown - which had been planned since 2018 - sparked community outrage, when residents said there was no proper alternative and green waste bin collections could not handle the volume of material.
The Canberra Sand and Gravel-run green waste facility needs to be moved so the former West Belconnen tip site can be remediated ahead of suburban expansion.
Public consultation on the major plan amendment is open until July 20.
