Byron Shire Council staff move to limit ‘overdevelopment’ on MOs, CTs

Main Arm was where many of the first MOs were approved in Byron Shire and was at the heart of the alternative movement in the region. Mount Chincogan with Mount Warning in the background. Photo Ziggi Browning.

Council planning staff are pushing to prohibit dual occupancies and secondary dwellings on approved multiple occupancies (MO) and community titles (CT) in rural areas.

MOs and CTs are shared parcels of rural land, and Byron Shire residents were early pioneers of the model. It has enabled low income earners to buy and/or build their own home. While financial institutions don’t lend for MOs, they do generally for CT. 

If approved by councillors, the LEP (local environment plan) will be amended so rural community titles, like multiple occupancies, are limited in their dwelling density.

Rationale

Staff write of their rationale, ‘Community Title Management Statements often include restrictions on secondary dwellings and dual occupancies in the rural zones. The LEP overrides the Community Title Statement, and on the face of it, appears to permit these land uses in the RU1 ad RU2 zones, which is inconsistent with the intent of multiple occupancy and community title approvals’.

‘Clause 4.2B governs dwelling density on rural multiple occupancies and community title, however, the current application of the clause is only to multiple occupancies. This clause should also apply to rural community title to give consistency to existing and future community title approvals to prevent overdevelopment of the rural areas.

‘Although Development Control Plan (DCP) 2014 currently does not support dual occupancies or secondary dwellings on Multiple Occupancy and Community Title development in the rural zones, this amendment to the LEP will strengthen this position and add consistency across Council’s planning instruments’.

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