The Mullumbimby Residents Association (MRA) has called a public meeting for Monday, 13 July at 6pm at the Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club to discuss the modified development application (DA 10.2025.212.1) for the carpark at 57 Station Street, Mullumbimby.
The cost of the building is estimated to be $16.5m.
The MRA have highlighted a range of ongoing concerns that remain with the DA (not least that Council are still pressing ahead with it) and the fact that the DA still fails to meet a range of criteria around the sewer mains, essential access to adjacent businesses, flood heights, building heights, noise and traffic management, and whether Byron Shire Council (BSC) had the legal right to sell the land for $1 in the first place.
‘The Echo revealed this public land was sold for a dollar. What we’re now asking is a more fundamental question: was Council legally entitled to sell it at all?’ said MRA convenor Dale Emerson.
‘Public land that hasn’t been properly classified as operational land cannot be sold under the Local Government Act – full stop. Council’s own reports authorising this transaction had no “legal Implications” section. We’ve looked for the classification instrument that would make this sale lawful. We can’t find it. The Northern Rivers Planning Panel (NRPP) requires it to be produced before this DA goes any further.’
The MRA have stated that they have now identified a second sewer breach and that the attempt to fix the first sewer breach in the modified DA has failed.
The DA now allows for a 3.69m easement along the southern border over the top of the sewer line that the MRA identified for the developer Landcom following its submission of their first DA. However, as the MRA points out this easement does not meet the base requirement of a 4.17m easement. Further, it still fails to address adequate access issues for grease traps and gas deliveries that the existing businesses such as Pink Lotus and The Other Joint require.
‘The Waste Management Plan is 37 pages long and doesn’t mention Ottilies, Pink Lotus, or The Other Joint once,’ said Mr Emerson.
‘It doesn’t mention the bin collection point those businesses use. It doesn’t mention the grease trap servicing. It doesn’t mention that Pink Lotus gets its gas delivered by tanker through the existing carpark, and that post-development there is no other way for a tanker to reach that tank. We spoke directly to the grease trap contractor. He confirmed the logistics. And the proposed solution is a one-metre gated path through a locked residential courtyard, with a 1.8-metre security fence between the businesses and the path. That’s not a replacement.’
The MRA have also confirmed that the proposed cantilever of the upper floors over the sewer line are prohibited building works under policy s.5.4.
While BSC requires that all DAs provide modelling that takes into consideration the impacts of the 2022 floods, this DA relies on the 2020 flood study. The boarding house rooms sit 240mm below the Flood Planning Level. Further, the DA will likely exceed maximum height allowances, and claims that the sewer easement corridor allows overland flow from McGoughans Lane to Station Street during a flood event. However, as both ends of that corridor are gated, which has not been included in the flood modelling, the MRA are requesting that new flood modelling be completed.
The modified DA has also failed to include a traffic plan or noise plan for the 18-month-long build required. The build will require construction vehicles accessing the site via McGoughans Lane, a narrow, one-lane access route that is also a key delivery point for the local supermarket IGA and other local businesses including The Echo. There is no staging area, worker parking, concrete pump position, or haul route identified in any document.
‘This is an 18-month construction program in the middle of the Mullumbimby CBD,’ said Mr Emerson.
‘Every truck goes through a lane that’s barely four metres wide. There’s no construction traffic management plan. The public hasn’t seen the structural engineering advice. And if they’re driving piles – which the sewer depth makes likely given the proximity – that’s 100 to 120 decibels at 10 metres. Pink Lotus and The Other Joint are right next door. There’s been no acoustic assessment of what an 18-month build does to the businesses alongside it. Those are people’s livelihoods.’
Find out more about these issues and more at the public meeting on 13 July or contact the MRA at: [email protected].
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