Additional updated reports have been quietly added to Council’s website regarding an exclusive 38-large-lot subdivision DA near the busy Mullumbimby Road and McAuleys Lane intersection.
The most significant document that will impact Mullumbimby residents and workers is an updated traffic report.
Neighbours had previously made numerous submissions pointing out that the original rezoning DA was problematic, and commissioned a peer review of the applicant’s original traffic report, which revealed inaccuracies and the use of outdated traffic data. The rezoning was approved in the last Council term.
DA 10.2023.454.1 was later referred to the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) after biodiversity issues surfaced for the 34.82ha parcel of land.
The NRPP assesses large DAs, stripping councils of local planning decisions. The NRPP website does not say when a decision is likely to be made.
The proponents for 53 McAuleys Lane are developers John Callanan and Tim Mundy.
Remarkably, Council staff are preparing to undertake road improvements in the area that the developers have been asked to improve as part of their DA conditions.
The Local Traffic Committee meeting minutes from November 19, 2024, support public funding of a ‘left turn deceleration lane for McAuleys Lane and a protected right turn lane’.
A landowner living on Mullumbimby Road near the McAuleys Lane turnoff told The Echo he is one of three neighbours impacted by the plans, and all are unhappy with the proposal. ‘I have written to Council to explain I wasn’t consulted about this,’ he said. ‘There has been no reply’.
The Echo has asked staff why public funds were now paying for the road works, and, ‘Will staff provide the public with their assessment of the reports the developer has submitted?’
Under assessment
Shannon Burt, Director Sustainable Environment and Economy told The Echo, ‘The development application remains under assessment. Once staff are in a position to finalise an assessment report it will be presented to the NRPP for determination. (https://tinyurl.com/mrx3auhz).’
‘Documents as updated by the applicant are made publicly available via the DA Tracker/Planning Portal: https://tinyurl.com/2hy22f97’.
When asked to clarify why the voluntary planning agreement (VPA) document also says it is a ‘planning agreement’, she replied, ‘A voluntary planning agreement is now known as a planning agreement’.
Until very recently, residents say they were not supplied with the latest traffic plans (including a Road Safety Audit).
The updated traffic report says: ‘The existing (weekday) traffic volume on Mullumbimby Road is approximately 13,035 vehicles per day (vpd)’.
While downplaying the need for street lighting and the estimated traffic movements generated by the proposed development, the traffic consultants also make the unsubstantiated claim that just 50 per cent of the large lots (between 3,000m2 and 8,478m2) may have dual occupancies.
Additionally, public transport is largely dismissed within the DA traffic report, despite councillors who voted for it at the time believing there would be improvements made around two bus shelters and pedestrian safety.
Neighbours told The Echo, ‘There’s no cycleway up McAuleys Lane, and no incorporation of the new Mullum Bruns cycleway in any of these plans. Also, only one bus stop is drawn, not on both sides, as promised. There is still no centre refuge island for crossing at bus stops as promised’.
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