The Byron Bay Masterplan Advisory Group (BBMAG) and People of Byron both came out strongly in support of Byron Shire being excluded from the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) and State Significant Development (SSD) state government fast track development pathways at the last Byron Shire Council (BSC) meeting on 15 October.
The groups say the new state-wide development application (DA) approval process will wreck Byron’s character and built environment by making the locally-generated planning framework irrelevant.
There were two motions before councillors, both moved by Mayor Sarah Ndiaye and seconded by Councillor Michelle Lowe. The first was to take a motion ‘to the 2026 Local Government NSW (LGNSW) annual conference calling on LGNSW to advocate strongly to the NSW government for the retention of planning powers by regional and rural councils’. The second was a motion to seek an exclusion for Byron Shire from the HDA and SSD fast track state development pathways.
Keep our height limits
The Byron Shire has clear height guidelines which locals and visitors fought to put in place, from the 1980s onwards, as developers sought to push up building heights and make Byron Bay a mini-Gold Coast.
Despite the height restrictions there has been a constant upward pressure as each height breach is strategically used by developers for future highest exceedances. This is the case even when the Land and Environment Court (L&EC) has specifically said that an approved breach should not be used in that way with, for example 4 Marvell Street, Byron Bay. It has also been pushed up by state legislation allowing height exceedances for certain types of development. Currently there are at least three proposals including two on Jonson Street in the state pipeline that exceed the height limit of 11.5m, including at the old Mitre 10 site at 148–156 Jonson Street and the old Woolworths site, 98–106 Jonson Street, (currently Haven) that are seeking to build to 16m and 21m respectively.
‘The threat to Byron’s character and built environment is real,’ Brook Crowle, from People of Byron told the meeting.
‘Right now, we need to protect this place more than ever. If the state government can [allow a proposal for] a 21m building today, what is coming next? The implications and threat to Byron’s character and built environment is real.
‘The expedited pathway of the HDA/SSD proposals expose an imbalance of benefit to the developer on the promise of a small amount of affordable housing. Meanwhile, the community and Council are locked out of decisions that shape the very town and region in which we live.’
Anthony Bangallo from BBMAG told the meeting that the ‘proposed Byron Shire-specific exclusion from the HDA/SSD pathways is particularly important because it would help maintain the integrity of our locally-developed planning framework’.
Bangallo emphasised the importance of the distinctive character of Byron, the risk individual proposals present when they are not considered in context of the overall town and their cumulative effects on Byron Shire’s distinct character.
Developer challenge
Independent councillor Jack Dods spoke up for the HDA/SSD fast track saying things should be made easier for developers.
‘The cost of construction, the rules in the National Construction Code, the rules around certification, the amount of rules that one has to prescribe with, in just submitting a DA. It makes your head explode,’ he told the meeting.
‘I understand why the state government has created this pathway, and for a project like the Jason Dunn Project, I don’t think this pathway is creating a huge issue,’ said Cr Dods referring to the proposed 16m height DA for the old Mitre 10 site.
Nevertheless he voted in favour of both motions with every other councillor who all wanted the local rules to take precedence.
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