The failure of the draft development control plan (DCP) for the Mullumbimby Hospital site to meet community expectations on the provision of a ‘village community’ that meets a range of housing needs on the site has led to the call for another public meeting on Monday, 4 May at the Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club from 6pm.
‘This meeting will update you on the DCP and explain our main concerns, particularly that there is no long-term guarantee of affordable housing in the development,’ said a spokesperson for the organising groups that include the Mullumbimby Hospital Action Group (MHAG), the Mullumbimby Residents Association, House You, and some Greens councillors.
Former town planner Ian Pickles highlighted the importance of ‘getting the DCP right, and ensuring this one-off opportunity for provision of public housing on Council, flood-free, urban land is not wasted for the community’.
Currently, the DCP only references a 20 per cent affordable housing for the 250+ lot site. Under the affordable housing SEPP that housing would be rented at 80 per cent of market rate and can be onsold into the private housing market after 15 years.
A village, not a ghetto or gated community
Multiple community consultations, including the project reference group (PRG), have identified that the community wants a village with mixed housing at the site so that it neither becomes a ghetto of disadvantage nor a gated community of the wealthy. The vision is a mix of housing, including people who need housing support, to those who are working as teachers, police officers, and nurses, the elderly and those with families.
Mr Pickes told The Echo that the DCP needs to provide more ‘adequate guidelines and prescriptive measures in the draft DCP’ in particular around affordable housing, how to lock-in the provision of public housing, and the ‘need to ensure DCP properly reflects Council Resolution 25-574’ that sought stakeholder feedback. The MRA were clear in their response that they wanted a development and DCP that ‘delivers the living village the community was promised’ rather than ‘a standard residential subdivision with a small community room’.
‘If just 3,000 sqm was earmarked for public and social housing, it would enable perhaps over 50 social housing units, just eight per cent of the total site area,’ explained Mr Pickles.
‘It seems that putting a lid on the proportion of affordable housing, and avoiding a commitment in the DCP to social housing, has much to do with the short-term goal of maximising the englobo sale price to offset the $5.68 million cost of remediation, rather than maximising the longer-term goal of ensuring some public housing in perpetuity.’
Find out more at this Monday’s meeting or contact the MRA at [email protected] for more information on how to submit your response to the draft DCP. You can put a direct response to the DCP in at https://yoursay.byron.nsw.gov.au/dcp-mullum-hospital.
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