A rethink of how and where we build in the Byron Shire is on the cards, with Byron Council staff proposing that a detailed discussion paper explore these and other flood-related issues.
After a similar exploration in Lismore, Byron Council staff are proposing that a paper be prepared titled After the 2022 Floods: Working out Possibilities Together.
Councillors will vote on whether or not to proceed with the paper at this week’s Council planning meeting.
Natural disaster management
In her report on the issue, Council’s Director of Sustainable Environment and Economy, Shannon Burt, said there was a need to review the Council’s settlement strategies on the back of the floods and respond to the ‘wider consideration of climate change and natural disaster management’.
‘To assist these strategy reviews and complement other work plans and programs for Council, it is now proposed to prepare a high-level discussion paper to set out a framework for land use and planning response to the flood events and identify principles/actions that could apply across the strategies, plans and programs more broadly as a result.’
Ms Burt proposed that the discussion paper should consider how the Shire could ‘build back better’ – rebuilding in a way that was more resilient to future floods and new weather extremes expected from climate change.
Building back
The paper would also explore building back differently, meaning a rethink of planning and building controls such as height, density and materials.
It would also examine different locations for future development such as new greenfield areas that could support local housing and business needs in an uncertain future.
Ms Burt proposed that the paper be prepared and presented to Council in the second half of the year so that it could be synchronised with the release of the North Coast Regional Plan and the latest Census data.
The report would also include a community engagement program to ensure that locals had a say on any proposed changes to building and development in the Shire.
Additionally, the Rural Land Use Strategy, a document adopted five years ago to guide rural land usage, is up for an ‘Action Audit’.
According to the report in this week’s agenda by Council planner, Sam Tarrant, the ‘regional plan and settlement planning guidelines are used to form Local Growth Management Strategies (LGMS). Council has three LGMS – Rural Land Use Strategy (RLUS), Business and Industrial Lands Strategy (BILS) and a draft Residential Strategy’.
Staff are asking to be given the powers to ‘prioritise delivery of Rural Land Use Strategy Action 21 in the 2022-23 financial year, being: Investigate capacity for re-subdivision within existing Large Lot Residential estates’.
Rural land options
They requested ‘the preparation of an options paper on the potential for additional land to be nominated for rural lifestyle living opportunities and/or other emerging housing types in peri-urban areas e.g. villages as part of the 2022-23 work program’.
Isn’t it strange that no-one thought to question the clearing of the ti-tree swamps, eradicating the whole endangered biome , and then building on that swamp with the ground-water at or near the surface ?……….Oh no ! that’s right, those pesky environmentalists were protesting this very stupid course of action , over forty years ago.
I wonder who were the town planners and do they ever get held to account for criminal incompetence ? Do they get to keep their ‘brown paper bags’.
Cheers, G”)