Photo Mullum Residents Association social media page
Says he has Councillor numbers on Residential Strategy
Floodplain development to the south-east of Mullumbimby appears now off the table.
Mayor Michael Lyon told residents in a Monday night Zoom meeting that he has the numbers on Council this Thursday to remove it from a 20-year Byron Shire housing strategy that aims for 4,522 homes by 2041.
Most of the land put forward by Council for rezoning under that strategy is in Mullum, Bruns and Bangalow, with the target being higher than the state government is asking for.
Yet a blanket 11.5m, or three- to- four-storey height limit across new greenfield developments is still on the table, which appears to be another inclusion without public consultation. Currently it is 9m for most of Byron Shire.
Remarkably, Cr Lyon told residents via Zoom he wasn’t sure if a 11.5m height limit was included in the Housing Options Paper, which was adopted by his slim majority on December 14 last year.
That paper ‘informs’ The Residential Strategy 2041, which will be voted upon at Thursday’s Council meeting. Additionally, the strategy will not include 2022 flood data and relies on pre-flood strategies, like the Mullum Masterplan.
The last-minute backdown by the mayor comes as flood-affected residents were preparing a campaign against the inclusion of large lots near Argyle Street, included without public consultation.
Dale Emerson from the Mullum Residents Association told The Echo he was thankful floodplain development was removed near Argyle Street, yet said there were many other questions the mayor was supplied with prior, that went unanswered at the Zoom meeting.
Significant changes
And while the mayor says it is the ‘single most important document that this Council will resolve on this term’, and has been ‘five years in the making’, the process leading to the Residential Strategy 2041 has seen significant changes with land inclusions/exclusions made after the public submission stage.
The mayor and planning staff have also been criticised by residents’ groups for unnecessarily keeping public submissions secret, using lot numbers instead of addresses when referencing proposed land rezonings, ignoring reports that advise against floodplain development and cherry-picking certain lands over others.
The peak body representing the Shire’s residents groups, Community Alliance for Byron Shire (CABS), are unhappy with Council’s Residential Strategy 2041 – see page 12.
It also emerged at the mayor’s Zoom meeting that the government made it clear that if Council don’t provide required housing targets, they would interfere and potentially remove Council’s planning powers. Despite the threat, Cr Lyon said that as much needs to be done as possible given the acute housing shortage.
No infrastructure audit
Regarding the capacity for the Shire to cope with the proposed housing, Council staff admit in the Residential Strategy 2041 that reviews are yet to be undertaken on its Capital Works Program and Developer Contribution Plans (page 29). An ‘infrastructure audit’ led by Council and the planning department is about to be undertaken, says the Residential Strategy 2041 (page 29), which will ‘identify the key enabling infrastructure required to support residential growth areas within LGAs as identified in the respective Residential Strategy’.
Mullum resident, Karl Allen, asked the mayor via Zoom when completed infrastructure reports will become public, given staff refuse to release them and infrastructure is struggling to cope.
The mayor replied he didn’t think the reports should be secret, ‘but perhaps there’s a reason’ and said he will look into it.
The mayor deflected questions around how Mullum’s water and sewage needs would be met.
Council’s Thursday meeting starts at 9am in the Mullum chambers.
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