HORSHAM Rural City Council will finalise the next step in a master plan for the city’s rail corridor in March.
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The Horsham Rail Corridor Master Plan will be a blueprint for new infrastructure, investment and land uses in the area between Wawunna Road and McPherson Street.
The area includes active and inactive rail lines and several large industrial sites, including the closed Mill Street freight terminal.
The plan will inform future changes to the city’s planning scheme, government investment priorities, private investment, and infrastructure plans.
It will also explore how to create better connections across the corridor between Horsham’s north and the city centre.
Horsham resident Kath Dumesny asked about the master plan’s progress in council’s first public question time session on Monday night.
Council chief executive Peter Brown said a draft plan was released last year, and council was reviewing the plan after community consultation in November.
The consultation followed drop-in sessions and a community workshop for the plan in July.
More than 100 people attended the sessions and provided feedback about how to develop the rail corridor.
“We anticipate that a report will be presented to council in March,” Mr Brown said.
“The key issue for council at that time will be to consider whether it wishes to adopt all or only some of the recommendations from the report, and in what form.”
The draft plan identifies a number of community priorities from the consultation process, including improving poor pedestrian and road connectivity between the areas to the north, west and south of the rail corridor.
Residents also raised safety concerns with the city’s underpass, which they considered narrow, steep and poorly lit.
It is also unsuitable for wheelchairs and elderly people.
Residents also believed the corridor appeared unkempt and abandoned and needed an improved look.
