Last Thursday, 22 October, the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) unanimously approved the amended 57 Station Street, Mullumbimby development application (DA) by Landcom on the Byron Shire Council (BSC) owned site.
The development will see the demolition of Mullumbimby’s only 24-hour toilet, which is heritage-listed, and see 28 apartments, a shop, and a ground-floor boarding house built on the town’s current central carpark.
The key question of access for shops that use their rear access via the carpark, which is legally required for gas deliveries and grease trap removal, has still not been resolved. A Council officer told the NRPP meeting that so far there was no agreement on access or ‘who would be responsible for those works’. The landowner told the NRPP that Council had stopped responding to their lawyers over the issue.
The significant traffic impacts on the town in relation to lost central parking, congestion of the entrance and exit of McGoughans Lane, which will be the access route for the build and the residents, did not appear to carry significant weight with the NRPP.
Flooding concerns remained with the NRPP Chair, Dianne Leeson, pointing out the building plans show a ground floor at 5m above sea level (known as RL 5.00). The Mullumbimby Residents Association (MRA) has also pointed out that ‘special purpose facilities’, such as the development’s boarding house, must meet the 2100 flood level of 5.14 metres under BSC planning rules. Responding two days later Council published a report stating that the 2100 flood level ‘does not apply to this development’.
The MRA say the community still needs answers to the questions of: ‘Which floor level has actually been approved – the 5m on the plans, or the 5.06 metres in the conditions?; Why the 2100 flood level does not apply? If the floor is raised, what happens to the shop, the ramps, and the building’s margin under the 11.7-metre height limit?; and, if the building floods, who is responsible?’
Dale Emerson, Convenor of MRA told The Echo, ‘Residents did win one important point. The NRPP has required Council to build replacement public parking, with at least as many spaces as are lost, before any work can start. But in September, Council staff told councillors there was no funding for the full project. Who will pay remains unanswered.’ The BSC will sell the current carpark site for $1 for the development.
Speaking to The Echo, former BSC Mayor Jan Barham said, ‘The Council-owned land was an opportunity to achieve an exemplar development to address the needs of vulnerable residents within a design that complemented the town. Instead, an approval for an out-of-character development at the entrance to town sets a poor design precedent.’
‘Urgently needed social and Aboriginal housing to address homelessness, social need, and undersupply weren’t prioritised, and the consultation failures and process secrecy have eroded community trust.’
The MRA agreed that the process has not engendered trust between the community, BSC, and Landcom.
‘People need to be able to trust what they’re told, and trust the process that decides,’ Mr Emerson told The Echo.
‘In 2025, Landcom’s social impact consultant, Dr Rigmor Berg, described the project’s opponents as “not near neighbours and not renting workers, but home-owning retirees”.
‘At the NRPP meeting Landcom’s architect described a residents’ suggestion about garbage collection as “frankly absurd” and an alternative as “foolish”. He said it was “vexing to hear these accusations” about the building’s height, and that a concern raised about fire safety was “completely misleading”.
‘Labels don’t answer questions,’ Mr Emerson said.
‘Nearly two-and-a-half thousand objections came from people of every age and walk of life in this town – renters, workers, business owners, families. Each concern deserves an answer, not a characterisation.’
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