Controversial Helensburgh business Blackwell Bros will be allowed to continue operating, after Wollongong councillors voted to rezone part of its landscaping supplies site to light industrial land.
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The 32-hectare Walker Street site was one of the most contentious in Wollongong City Council's long-running review into the zoning of 1556 hectares of environmentally sensitive land in Helensburgh.
A number of Blackwell family supporters attended Monday night's extraordinary council meeting, expressing their support or opposition to councillors opinions through applause or outbursts during the evening.
There was a long debate over whether the land should remain as environmental land or be rezoned to allow for the landscape and building supplies company to keep operating.
Liberal councillor Leigh Colacino voted for the change to industrial zoning, saying the Blackwells company helped give employment security to Helensburgh and surrounding suburbs.
He argued the business not only provided about 30 jobs for Helensburgh residents, it also supported the building industry in the surrounding northern suburbs.
However, independent councillor Vicki Curran raised concerns over continuing disputes and an imminent Land and Environment Court case between the Blackwells and council.
In 2011, the council found the business expanded beyond what was allowed under an original 1983 development consent and was operating an unauthorised waste recycling facility.
Cr Curran said she would be voting against a motion allowing Blackwell Bros to keep operating, because the site owners had continued "blatant and widespread abuse" of their land.
She said it was unfair for the council to bend planning rules to suit this company when there were business owners in other Wollongong suburbs who wanted to expand but were unable to do so because of planning restrictions imposed.
"This is not strategic planning, it is rewarding people for the deliberate abuse of our planning controls and abuse of our environment," Cr Curran said.
"We might as well be saying 'Go ahead Helensburgh and do whatever you want ... because you allowed employment'."
Labor councillor Janice Kershaw said Monday's meeting was not designed to conclude whether the Blackwells had been compliant or not, saying the decision was simply an issue of zoning.
"[Our decision] has got nothing to do with who owns [the site]; it's got to do with the use," Cr Kershaw said.
The motion to make part of the site industrial land was passed 9-4, with the Greens and independents voting to keep the western part of the site zoned as E3 land.
According to the endorsed motion, the western part of the site will become environmentally protected land.
