Jehovah’s Witnesses are planning to build a new Kingdom hall in Cooloola Cove (Australia).  They have removed all the trees from a lot which concerns residents over the potential now for flooding in their homes and properties. Residents were also upset that the trees were cut down during nesting season, as the trees were home to many birds.

Residents were required to pay a relaxation fee in order to build a single house on a 1 acre lot. They suspect that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had to pay a substantial sum in order to get the approval to build in this particular lot.

What is even more troubling is that there was vacant land not far away, which would have allowed the Witnesses to build their hall without destroying bird habitats and damaging the natural drainage (or tree absorption) capacity of the neighborhood.

The following article details the story:

Article Republished from www.gympietimes.com.au

“A SECLUDED residential area, so damp it possibly should never have been developed, is the intended site of a church which nearby Cooloola Cove residents say will cause potentially major noise, traffic, flooding and sewerage impacts. The residents, including one who says his neighbours once included ducks, say their concerns are about practical planning and health issues, not about the faith of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who may be in attendance.

“We’re downhill from them and there’s no sewerage, said Warratah Drive’s John Warner, around the corner from the site.

They say it will accommodate 150 people, with 40 car parks. It’s uphill and we have a foot of run-off across the road in a storm as it is,” said Barry Obst.

Jamie Toms and Vicki Davey, next door to the church site, say they are concerned at the clearing of trees at a time when birds are rearing young.

Their comments did not include the anti-JW views which they say were expressed at a recent community meeting, with other people in the area quite definite in their opposition to the presence of a Jehovah’s Witness headquarters in the area.

They told of a heated recent meeting at which some made claims about unacceptable practices within the religion, regarded by many as a cult, while some also attached derogatory signs, since removed, to felled trees on the site.

“I’m not against their religion or anything, although I don’t particularly want my daughter approached by people trying to recruit her,” said Mr Warner.

“They chopped all the trees down and, as you can see, we’re trying to get trees to grow in the area,” he said of his own extensive plantings around the lot… I know for a fact that there were birds nesting in those trees… There are five to seven toilets going into the place… We probably get 20 cars a day here, but this will quadruple that or more… We had trouble building even a house on this block, with the council wanting 15m clearance on either side of the block. We had to pay a $180 relaxation fee just to put a house on a one-acre block… They must have paid a lot of relaxation fees to build a church on their block… There’s nothing to stop them building a church quite nearby. Only about four houses away, 300m at the most, is industrial land where there would have been no problem… We’ve got drainage problems already and so our biggest concern is sewerage… If we dig a hole here, we strike water - and what about the quality of effluent?,” Mr Warner said.

“Drainage is going to be the big problem,” said Mr Obst, on the other side of Atlantis Avenue. “I’ve written a submission to council, but their storm water drain was never designed to take the rain we get… In heavy rain we’ve had water up to a foot across the road. We’ve got no curbing or channelling and if they have a car park for 30 cars or more, they need a decent, engineered drainage system, or it will just run off into my place… Dig down 800mm and when it’s raining the water is flowing under here… As for traffic, I’m probably the one most affected… I can understand the tree clearing. The trees look good but they have a bad habit of dropping limbs, if you are going to have people around,” he said.

Mr Obst said he was not as worried about the effect on property values as he would have been had he bought in recently at “top dollar”.

“Anyone who’s bought in recently at top dollar will lose money if they sell.”

Next door to the proposed church, Vicki Davey said the church’s supporters should not have cut down trees in the nesting season. And she was worried about noise. “People around here want to get away from the hubbub. They should have it down near the community centre.”

Jamie Toms said he had lived there for three years and enjoyed the natural block next door and was concerned about nesting birds.”

Written by Arthur Gorrie | 7th January 2009
www.gympietimes.com.au

Trees cut down on the site of the new Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses raise concerns over residential flooding and destruction of bird habitats. Photo credit: Renee Pilcher