Maitland City Council has begun compliance action against coffee outlet The Bearded Cactus.
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Most councillors voted last week to begin compliance action against the business, which is based in the front yard of an East Maitland residential block on the New England Highway.
A council spokesman told the Mercury on Thursday that the city was in the early stages of taking action.
“Council is in the process of issuing a notice of intention to serve an order to the business under the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act,” he said.
“After the notice is issued, the owner of The Bearded Cactus will then have the right to reply to council.
“The official order will be issued once the notice period ends and The Bearded Cactus will then need to comply.”
The Bearded Cactus opened in February because of a state planning loophole that allowed a mobile food and beverage cart to operate at the site as long as it did not significantly affect the nearby environment.
But council took action after a rise in complaints from neighbours about noise, privacy and traffic.
Council staff suggested that the city should launch an investigation into compliance issues to “seek to have the facility stop operating”.
“Continuing and growing concerns being raised with council by the surrounding neighbourhood, together with council officers’ observations of the site, support the need for council to now consider formal action in respect of the site,” a staff report noted.
The business owners have said that they would co-operate with council and that they did not want to be a nuisance to neighbours, but there has been some public support for the business to remain where it is.
The Mercury reported on Thursday morning that an online petition to “save The Bearded Cactus” was only 119 short of 1500 signatures.
As of Thursday afternoon, the petition only needed 60 signatures to reach its target.