At Thursday’s Byron Shire Council meeting there were multiple calls for a deferral of the 57 Station Street, Mullumbimby car park development application (DA 10.2025.212.1).
New issues with the roundabout and roadside landscaping on public land, and a continuing concern about waste removal were highlighted. It had become clear from the BSC’s Assessment Report recommending approval, that changes had been made to the DA that had not been made public until Council’s assessment report was provided to the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP).
Local Sharon McGrath addressed the BSC meeting highlighting that the ‘revised architectural plans extend roadside landscaping into public land and narrow the roundabout exit lane’.
‘The really critical part is that Landcom can’t deliver this development on the land they have been given. They are extending into the public road reserve with no public exhibition, McGrath told The Echo.
This point was also made by Mullumbimby Residents Association (MRA) convenor Dale Emmerson who asked, ‘Why is additional public land being used to accommodate this development? Who has endorsed these changes, and what public benefit justifies them? These works require roads authority consent under section 138 of the Roads Act 1993. Has that consent been granted? If so, by whom and when? If not, when will it be sought, and will the community see it? And Who will pay for the road changes, and for their ongoing maintenance?’
In her Urgent Addendum submitted to councillors, Ms McGrath pointed out that, ‘Landcom has not demonstrated that the revised layout safely accommodates existing heavy vehicles, preserves on-site landscaping compliance or is consistent with the Mullumbimby Masterplan.’
In particular, McGrath highlighted Landcom’s failure to demonstrate the revised road changes capacity to accommodate ‘heavy vehicles already using this route’.
‘The revised plan narrows the roundabout exit lane used by existing traffic, including articulated delivery vehicles servicing the nearby Woolworths supermarket and seasonal sugar cane trucks. Landcom has not provided swept-path evidence demonstrating that the revised layout accommodates these existing heavy vehicle movements, including the approximately 19-metre articulated vehicles servicing Woolworths. Council’s assessment does not establish that these movements can be safely accommodated.
‘Landcom should provide a complete schedule identifying the architectural and civil drawings changed since the last exhibition and the nature and extent of those changes,’ Ms McGrath detailed in her submission to Council.
McGrath, with the accompanying independent technical assessment by Ingen Consulting, also identified unresolved issues with waste vehicles accessing the site and sight distance issues for vehicles leaving the development in both directions on McGoughans Lane.
‘The Bitzios traffic assessment submitted for Landcom’s proposal claims 70 metres of available sight distance in both directions for vehicles leaving the development into McGoughans Lane. The attached Ingen Consulting assessment estimates only 30.5 metres to the south, compared with the 55 metres required in the Bitzios report,’ she points out.
McGrath, supported by the MRA, requests that the NRPP who will be assessing the DA on Monday, 19 October, defer the determination until ‘Landcom provides a complete schedule of changes since exhibition, and Council explains how those changes were assessed and why further exhibition was not undertaken.’
This involves multiple unresolved issues that also included ‘flood levels, restaurant servicing, traffic modelling’.
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