Staff reporters
At an extraordinary general meeting last night Lismore City Council passed its new Local Environment Plan. It is a first for the region.
Mayor Jenny Dowell said she was pleased that, while after the first draft there were more than a thousand objections, only a handful of residents spoke against the final draft last night.
Most of them were farmers, she said, and the council had made some significant changes to its original draft rural zonings that had satisfied most country people.
The previous state government required all councils in NSW to produce new LEPs based on a series of templated zones, which in rural areas were seen to be extremely controversial. It was intended they should have been in place by the end of last year.
But many local LEPs are still mired in redrafts to accommodate extensive objections and the new government has introduced some variations to the template zonings to help streamline the process.
Byron, Ballina and Tweed councils all have yet to deliver new LEPs, with Byron’s LEP dating back to 1988.