Who wants Billinudgel to become a suburb? How about extending Mullumbimby to the west, north and east?
Expanding Ewingsdale and creating a suburb at Skinners Shoot are other suggestions for possible future residential areas in Council’s preliminary draft residential policy, out now for public comment until November 11.
According to the draft policy, large swathes of agricultural and rural land could potentially become (greenfield) suburbs by 2036, despite government requirements for housing numbers already being largely met by planned and potential infill developments.
The residential strategy is a key planning ‘instrument’ that sits below other planning documents that guide how and where development occurs.
Underpinning the residential policy are directives from the state and federal governments, particularly the state government’s Draft North Coast Regional Plan, which was released early this year and has not been heard of since.
That plan mainly identified roads and airports as desirable infrastructure and caused a stir owing to also identifying CSG for the north coast.
Another document that staff say ‘informs’ the preliminary draft residential policy is the December 2015 Byron Shire Housing Needs Report.
Authored by Brisbane-based Buckley Vann Town Planning Consultants, the 134-page report examines obstacles that inhibit housing growth and recommends ‘regulatory or policy change’, addressing ‘internal Council governance’ and ‘Council-led initiatives.’
Biodiversity hotspot
Retired planner John Sparks, who provided input for West Byron and the Byron Bay Masterplan, told The Echo that ‘Byron Shire is part of one of the most biodiverse areas of NSW with more species of plants and animals found here than in any other ecosystem in the state.’
‘The value of nature and what it provides to our way of living is not quantified or recognised in the current strategy and should be considered before any built environment is proposed.
‘Our existing statutory planning system is based on conflicting regulations which are forever challenged and manipulated to suit private agendas. You cannot regulate for good design. A strategic plan must consider all aspects of social, political, economic, environmental, sustainable, ethical and spiritual aspirations of the people who will live, work and play there, creating a positive strategy for growth with multiple benefits to the community it serves.’
Always the same. The people who want to come to a place because it is beautiful and out of the capitalistic race destroy what they come to find. Like the people who come down here from the goldie. Build their massive dwellings, cut down all the trees and wander the town like someone from Alice in Wonderland.
Alexander Pope might have used this article as a fine of example of his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot. I would not say it stoops to “… assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer”; nor that it is “ Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,” – it does neither. But I would suggest that in respect of both the North coast and Byron reports it does “Damn with faint praise” and is not afraid to “Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike”. Including the negative inclusion with CSG concerning the reference to roads and airports in the North Coast Report for example was a bit much. Even if you do not drive – and the proportion of residents of the North Coast who do not is much less than the percentage who vote for that party so beloved of readers of the Echo– it is important to remember that most of the public transport undertaken on the north coast, now and historically, has been by road (even if you do not include the twice daily school bus journeys). And similarly most of the longer distance public transport journeys in and out are done by air, a transport that is as safe as ever and as environmentally benign as the dinosaurs that rattle down our rails, and much more so than what is often the only affordable, practicable alternative for many people in the region – use of old cars by single occupants. As far as the extent of greenfield development is concerned, I suspect it will be little different from now and will be tightly limited by our feisty councils, particularly of course the Byron Shire. Since the sixties after my father Ted Hatfield ceased his role as president of the Shire, the Council has successfully opposed any semblance of “development”, to the benefit of our environment but also to the even greater benefit of landholders who had better real estate sense than the pro-development men of his age did.