At its last meeting, Ballina Shire Council narrowly decided to leave the door open for future urban development on several large areas of land between Lennox Head and Tintenbar. The contentious sites are North Kinvara (CURA B), CURA C and West Lennox Palms.
Cr Phil Meehan noted that these areas have been part of Ballina’s long term strategic planning for over 30 years, despite what he described as ‘technical difficulties’, which include busy roads, steepness, bushfire risk and flood risk. He said any proposed development would have to explain how these would be dealt with.
Cr Kiri Dicker called for the areas to be removed from Council’s strategic planning documents for future urban growth.
Regarding CURA C she said, ‘I want to offer future residents of the Ballina Shire great places to live, and I want to keep our community a great place to live. I don’t want them to have to have their windows closed all the time because of the road noise. I don’t want them to have to get in the car every time they need to go to the shops.’
Another gigantic greenfield site
Regarding North Kinvara, she was incredulous that Council would proceed considering the known issues with storm and flood water in the area. ‘I’m really interested to see if anyone has a genuine argument why we should invite proposals for another gigantic greenfield site on Ross Lane.’
Cr Therese Crollick said, ‘I’m approaching this from a cost benefit analysis for our community, for our council. There are so many issues. It’s not one or two issues, but these three areas have so many issues that need to be addressed…
It’s not going to give us the housing outcomes that we need,’ she said. ‘I really would like to see these three areas removed, because I think we have better options, and I think a lot of the other options deliver a much, much better cost benefit.’
Cr Michelle Bailey said she wanted to keep Ballina Council’s options open for the land in question. ‘It’s about maintaining our long term strategic options, retaining the sites is strategic urban growth – it doesn’t approve the development.
‘We’re not saying come and build. We’re saying there’s a potential for it… I think retention is a prudent planning position.’
Comparing Lennox with the situation at Alstonville Plateau, where the plans for future villages appear to have been shelved for now, Cr Meehan said, ‘It is simply not fair to the community at Lennox Head,’ before going on to say that the future was unknown, and that the existing technical difficulties with the proposed sites may be overcome at some point and ‘they may well supply valuable housing to future residents of our shire.’
With councillors perfectly split for the vote, Mayor Sharon Cadwallader used her casting vote to retain CURA B, C and West Lennox Palms within Ballina’s Local Strategic Planning Statement for potential future development.
She was opposed by Crs Crollick, Chate, Ramsey, Karsten and Dicker.
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Twelve Northern Rivers residents are celebrating the completion of a groundbreaking program designed to build essential skills and unlock employment pathways for women in civil construction. With local government meeting practice across the state returning to confusion following the NSW Legislative Council's recent decision, Ballina Shire Council's last meeting included a lot of unanimous decisions and an argument about the remnants of the Big Scrub, in which Mayor Cadwallader used her casting vote to squash Cr Simon Chate's motion. Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has approved Ballina Shire Council's application to increase its general income through a permanent special variation (SV) of 26.25% [in rates] over four years, from 2026-27 to 2029-30. Byron Greens members could expect to be asked to take the future of the Richmond River further south into account when choosing a candidate for next year’s state election. Local business owners in the Alstonville and Wollongbar townships are being encouraged to take the time to read through Ballina Shire Council’s draft plans, which are currently on exhibition.
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