Photo Mullum Residents Association social media page
Large swathes of agricultural/rural land in Byron Shire, including areas of High Environmental Value (HEV), is set to become rezoned in the coming 20 years, after councillors adopted Council’s Housing Options Paper at its Thursday meeting.
A request by the NSW government for a 4,522-dwelling housing target has been well exceeded – Council plans for 6,695 new dwellings.
The majority of new homes are slated for Mullum, Bruns and Saddle Road, with another large parcel earmarked for Bangalow.
Those in favour were Mayor Michael Lyon (the mover), Crs Mark Swivel, Asren Pugh, Peter Westheimer and Alan Hunter.
Crs Duncan Dey and Cate Coorey voted against the motion, while Crs Sama Balson and Sarah Ndiaye were absent.
Higher density provisions, or ‘higher dwelling yields’ are also included in the Housing Options Paper.
The last-minute inclusion of Mullumbimby flood-prone land at 75 New City Road on the eastern side of town is one of many parcels earmarked for future development under the Housing Options Paper, which will ‘inform’ Council’s Residential Strategy.
Once the Residential Strategy is adopted, it will be sent to the NSW government for consideration in early 2024.
The last Residential Strategy was rejected by the NSW government, with online information scarce as to the reasons.
Cr Duncan Dey (Greens) was unsupported by fellow councillors with an amendment that would remove flood-prone areas.
Very little debate around future flooding impacts occurred, despite clear government advice tabled within the Housing Options Paper attachments that land proposed for development was ‘not to be affected by natural hazards’.
Staff’s response to flood risks in their reports are that they can be managed.
While Mayor Michael Lyon has downplayed his push for high housing numbers, claiming publicly that he expects many proposals to be rejected, former Byron Shire mayor and NSW MLC, Jan Barham says the opposite.
She told The Echo, ‘Once land is identified in a Residential Strategy endorsed by the state, it’s on; there’s a reasonable expectation for landowners to start work on rezoning and development plans’. She added, ‘I haven’t seen such a grand, reckless plan like this since 1993, when the pro-development Council put forward a Draft Residential Strategy with land release areas in Tyagarah, Bangalow, Brunswick and Mullumbimby’.
‘Sound familiar?’
Public feedback
As reported last week, it is unclear whether community concerns on floodplain development were taken into account with the options paper, given all submissions concerning the Housing Options Paper are confidential.
During public access at the meeting, flood issues were again raised by residents.
Councillor Duncan Dey (Greens) told The Echo he counted the occurrences of the word ‘flood’, either whole or as prefix, eg floodplain, flooding, etc) in the public submissions (attachments 12 and 15).
He said, ‘The stats are amazing: Attachment 12 is submissions from community groups, and has 306 occurrences of “flood”, on 85 pages. Attachment 15 is submissions from two government agencies – 30 occurrences on four pages. This attachment is not marked confidential’.
Senior Council staff also made the unverified claim within their public submissions report that the community wants increased density in future dwellings.
Within the ‘agency submissions’ document on Council’s website, the Department of Planning and Environment (DPE)’s Jeremy Gray says that Council’s forward planning documents should ‘maximise density’ to ‘encourage the efficient use of the land’.
As for infrastructure requirements, Gray offers vague advice that it would be ‘beneficial for Council to identify the key infrastructure works required to service the projected housing growth’.
Local NSW MP Tamara Smith (Greens) told The Echo, ‘The Housing Options Paper is essentially a housing supply paper that subsumes the status quo of the NSW Lib/Nats and Labor that housing supply is the magic answer to housing crises. In many ways, the intended audience seems to be the Department of Planning (DPE)’.
We can do better: MP
‘We are headed to reach two degrees of global warming within the next six to ten years!
‘Where’s the plan to build community batteries and storage, to mandate recycled water and explore on-site compost sewage systems?
‘Right now, there’s not even a requirement in this state to build a heat-resistant roof or install solar panels. Where is the potable water for another 30,000 plus people in Byron Shire coming from?
‘Falling for the supply paradigm without the infrastructure and real world contexts, I believe, puts people’s lives at risk, and continues the social stratification between the rich and poor that got us here in the first place. We can do so much better.’
Correction: The Echo incorrectly stated in the story that 75 Prince Street was earmarked for development on a flood plane. It is in fact 75 New City Road.
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