Residents in West Kiama had their feathers ruffled this month after receiving letters indicating the nearby Greyleigh Function Centre was expanding its premises.

Bugle readers told us they’d received the letter from Kiama Council on 12 February 2024 advising that the owners of Greyleigh, a countryside accommodation and boutique wedding venue on Long Brush Road, had lodged a development application for the property.

Council’s letter states: “Under Council’s notification provisions, a person who owns land that the Council considers may be detrimentally affected by the proposed development, will be notified of that development. 

“The notification plans and associated documents for the development may be viewed on Council’s DA Tracker during the notification period only at https://da.kiama.nsw.gov.au/Home/Index.”

The Bugle received a number of letters from concerned residents about the development, so we reached out to the owners of Greyleigh to ask about the changes.

Greyleigh’s General Manager, Hamish McCallum told The Bugle that the system generated description of the DA may be somewhat misleading. The DA instead represents Greyleigh’s application to host farm experiences and farm stay accommodation.

“This application is more for housekeeping purposes. It does not include the erection of new buildings or modification of any of the existing buildings on site,” McCallum said.

“It does not increase the footprint of the site, nor does it increase the capacity of the site either. As per our existing approval, we can host a maximum of 250 guests, while our average wedding is around 120 guests.”

“We find the system generated DA description to be somewhat misleading and our town planner has contacted council regarding this. Under the definitions of the LEP we have applied for a Farm Experience Premises and Farm Stay Accommodation.”

You can find all the documents lodged as part of the DA, and any future documents, from Kiama Council’s DA portal here.