Nearly all property owners in Ballina’s boutique Fig Tree Hill estate near Lennox Head have been banned from building second dwellings indefinitely owing to sewage concerns.
Dual occupancy developments are allowed in Ballina’s rural zones according to its Local Environment Plan 2012 but council staff say the sewer network at Fig Tree Hill estate is maxed out.
There aren’t any plans to increase the network’s capacity, staff say, because the project is considered too costly.
Staff at last month’s meeting said their view had always been that it was ‘entirely uneconomic’ to upgrade the sewer system at Fig Tree Hill.
The estate’s original sewer design was to provide enough capacity for the existing development, staff said, with no apparent options for future expansion.
Dual occupancy development had subsequently never been allowed in the estate, staff said, adding that the fifty or so lots also failed to meet suitability for on-site sewage systems.
‘These properties tend to be narrow, steep, relatively small in size, average size less than thousand square meters, and of a soil type not ideally suited to onsite sewage systems,’ staff said.
No immediate plans to expand Fig Tree Hill, say staff
Any future changes to sewage capacity at Fig Tree Hill aren’t likely to happen for at least five to ten years, according to information staff shared in last month’s ordinary council meeting agenda on an amended Ballina Development Control Plan.
The future potential for change depended on expansion of a light industrial estate nearby at Ross Lane, unlikely to happen for five or ten years.
Staff had suggested including several larger surrounding properties in the second dwelling ban but dropped the expanded boundary after considering submissions from the public.
Six submissions were reported, three of them representing one property.
‘The submissions made a number of good points around the size of those lots and their capacity to hold on-site sewer systems,’ staff said in the meeting, ‘and so the thinking was, well for those larger size lots, maybe it is reasonable for an on-site sewer system to be enabled and for them to go through the DA process’.
Former Byron Shire Councillor represents property owners near Lennox Head
Properties in nearby Coopers Close could also be allowed ‘if they can otherwise get through all the normal hurdles that you would jump for an onsite system’, staff said at the meeting.
Sol Ibrahim spoke at the same meeting in a deputation representing Coopers Close residents.
Mr Ibrahim, a lawyer who once served as a Byron Shire Councillor, said the properties were flat, wide and ranging between 2000 square meters and over a hectare with a soil type ‘very much suited to onsite sewer systems’.
The staff proposal to include the properties in a ban on second dwellings was not ‘an inconsequential or minor matter’ for the property owners, Mr Ibrahim said.
‘Nor is it for this shire where we all know we have an urgent need, where suitable, to provide additional housing, affordable housing, in the form of dual occupancies,’ Mr Ibrahim said.
Council approves Local Development Plan amendments
Councillors during debate agreed with Mr Ibrahim’s sentiments, with Greens Cr Kiri Dicker proposing the mapped area for banned second dwellings in Fig Tree Hill be left with the smaller boundary first drafted.
The proposal was included as an amendment to a motion to accept staff’s recommendation to accept changes made to the DCP and recently exhibited.
Other changes included extra residential zoning in Ballina Heights as part of ‘land use changes in remaining undeveloped parts of Ballina Heights’, staff noted.
Accommodation was also made in the DCP for the former coalition government’s introduction of regulations allowing for agritourism development in rural zones.
Some zone names for business and industrial zones, and environmental/conservation zones were also updated, as was a definition of the measurement of building lines.
Independent Cr Jeff Johnson seconded Cr Dicker’s motion, with all councillors voting in support.
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