The plight of Matt Bruce, now getting press in the Guardian, is an issue that demands greater nuance from our council.
On the one hand we have the worst housing and homelessness crisis we have ever seen, and on the other we have, often ageing, low-income landowners on large marginal properties that they are struggling to manage on their own, let alone pay the skyrocketing rates that are illogically pegged to land values. Many of them don’t have the resources to follow due process to apply for a secondary dwelling, nor is having someone live right next to you that attractive when you live on an enormous property getting overrun with weeds.
The only other option, to subdivide, is heavily constrained by originally well-intentioned, but antiquated, zoning laws that restrict rural subdivisions to lots greater than 200 acres regardless of its agricultural viability.
Matt’s case is not unique. A friend with a similar parcel of land in Wilsons Creek, who provides low-cost shelter for a number of people, is also being forced to evict everyone. Where will they go? To more donga refugee camps on the fringes of our towns? Is that the best we can do?
Surely allowing more small, low-impact dwellings on large rural holdings is a win/win for both the homeless and struggling landowners.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
