Katie Milne, Tweed Shire Councillor
One step in the right direction for Tweed’s new Local Environment Plan
An extraordinary meeting was held on Friday to quickly dispense with the rescission motion from Crs Polglase, Youngblutt and Byrne challenging the new environmental zoning strategy that councillors had resolved to accept as a late submission at the last council meeting.
The rescission motion was lost and all other councillors spoke of the absolute imperative to include Council’s long-awaited environmental strategy.
The option to either include, or not include, the Revised Environmental Strategy and/or the Koala Habitat Study, into the LEP is now expected to come back to Council in March or April.
If these strategies are accepted the dLEP would probably need to go back on exhibition again as these changes would be significant.
Regardless of either outcome, the concern will remain that consent for clearing, previously required for all vegetation in the new E3 zone (translated from the current 7(l) habitat and 7(d) scenic landscape), will no longer be required except in the case of threatened species and koala habitat.
Also of great concern are the extra land uses allowed in most of the zones and the new height limits in the urban areas.
