There was applause from the full gallery at Tuesday night's Griffith City Council meeting when the development application for a brothel was turned down.
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“The recommendation of our planners and staff was refusal, and we adopted the recommendation of our staff,” Mayor John Dal Broi said.
“It’s obvious that there was a lot of community concern about the brothel, and at the end of the day we’re here to represent the community.”
Several objections were attached to the documentation, including one from a sex worker who wrote: “industrial zones are not the appropriate place for a sex service premise.”
“The sex industry is not an industrial business which makes it an unsafe zone for them be allocated (sic),” she said in her submission.
“The isolation of sex workers makes them vulnerable and opens the door to exploitation.”
Michael Rowley from Griffith Recycling spoke against the development, saying “this is not the correct place for a brothel.”
“I feel that Griffith may be a growing city but do we really need this type of growth?” Mr Rowley said.
Other objections were related to the proximity of the proposed development to a dance studio and costume hire business which were regularly visited by children.
“Our planning staff are professional people and they looked at it professionally and they had some concerns,” Councillor Dal Broi said.
“It’s a controversial issue of course and there’s a bit of history with the previous brothel approval, where council refused it and it went to the Land and Environment Court, and the council decision was overturned.
“But the point made by Cr Zappacosta was you already have an approval for one, do we really need a second one just around the corner from it?”
Police also strongly opposed the proposed development.
Cr Zappacosta said the proposed location was “not an area you want people to be travelling around particularly at night time.”
“If there’s a business that will be impacted then we as councillors are obliged to consider the impact made on that business,” Cr Zappacosta said.
Cr Dal Broi said this was the first development application “for quite some years where the staff have recommended refusal and they don’t do it lightly”.