The future of housing in Orange will be discussed at two community forums next week, Orange City Council said today.
The forums follow up 900 visits to Council’s YourSay Orange online engagement platform, which has been collecting community feed-back about the draft Housing Strategy since it was launched last October.
Water security and affordable housing have emerged as key issues in the first round of responses, as well as discussion about more diversity in housing types and the direction of outward growth of residential estates, Council said in a statement today.
Orange Mayor, Jason Hamling (pictured) said he welcomed community discussion about water security and other issues in the Housing Strategy and encouraged residents to attend the information sessions.
“This draft strategy will put some important directions in place for the next twenty years,” Mayor Hamling said.
“While the technical information from experts that’s included in the Housing Strategy makes it clear that Orange has a secure water yield of 7868ML a year, which is enough to service a population of 58,000 by the year 2060, these information sessions will help the community to understand what that means.
“I’d encourage residents to come along with their questions.”
At the forums, the Mayor said Council staff will provide a high-level overview of the draft Local Housing Strategy, the steps taken to reach this point and the way forward.
The deadline for formal submissions on the draft Local Housing Strategy is 5pm Monday 21 February.
The forums held at the Civic Theatre at 6pm on Wednesday and 1pm Thursday next week.