Googong resident Robyn Jakim hopes she will gain council approval to run group fitness classes from her property. Photo: Kim Pham.
QUEANBEYAN City Council has given Googong resident Robyn Jakim 30 days to make amendments to her development application to satisfy council requirements. This followed a motion to shut down a fitness training group Mrs Jakim had been running on her property. Council had received complaints from neighbours about the traffic, noise and light pollution generated from the activity.
Mrs Jakim also lives on Mount Campbell Estate where residents are expected to adhere to rules to preserve the theme and nature of the development as set by the Mount Campbell Estate Community Association Executive Committee.
At Wednesday night's meeting, councillors Trudy Taylor and Steve Stavreas suggested more time be given to the applicant so they could make changes to meet council standards.
Group manager of sustainability and better living Mike Thompson said it could be difficult to overcome some of the problems with the development application like the noise issue unless the sessions were moved indoors.
Mrs Jakim said she was happy with the council's decision to give her more time as she had expected them to vote to completely stop the training sessions.
She said she would consider moving the main training area to a different part of her property and cap the numbers of participants in each class.
"I'm asking council to let me run my sessions part-time, it's not a full-time business," she said.
"I have thought about moving to a different venue, I might have to think about it more if council don't approve [the DA]. I have no intention of giving up, we may have to look at using a community hall or some other options. Whatever happens Let's Go PT will not cease, it just might not be run from my property anymore."
There are 47 families living on the Mount Campbell Estate. A spokesman for MCECAEC said there was no animosity towards Mrs Jakim. However, the committee did not want any outdoor businesses on the estate as it believed it infringed on "the theme and nature of the Mount Campbell Estate development".
The committee had previously rejected an application from a potential resident who wanted to park trucks more than three tonne on the ground of the noise the trucks might create.
The spokesman said they did not want to set a precedent that might make way for other backyard businesses in the future. "We have nothing against the individual, it's not about the type of business they are running it's just about having an outdoor business," he said.
Mrs Jakim, a qualified personal trainer, had been running boot camp fitness sessions on her property at Mount Campbell Estate for the past nine months.
She said running the session at her property were convenient for people who live in the Googong area.
"[The group started] when a friend who lived in the area asked if I would run group fitness classes from home," she said.
"I told her if she could get half a dozen people interested I would do it. It has evolved from there, I started with one session per week to five sessions now."
These sessions usually run from 6 to 8pm with a maximum of 12 participants per class.
Mrs Jakim said activities include a combination of equipment including skipping ropes, therabands, free weights, bar/kettlebells, tyres, medicine balls, training rope and boxing.
"There isn't continuous screaming and yelling through the sessions," she said.
Neighbours on the estate had complained about the noise generated from the session, lights used during the boot camps and car parking.
They informed Mrs Jakim she had to have council approval to run a business on her property.
"When the neighbours first complained we stopped using certain equipment like the tractor tyre, we would flip it and the noise would echo," Mrs Jakim said.
"Another complaint was that people weren't parking inside my boundary so I made sure this happened and also stopped the beep test."
Prior to the council meeting there were three submissions against the development application and 15 letters of support for Mrs Jakim's fitness sessions from her participants.
The development application will be reviewed in about a month's time.