Continued community questioning of the reason why 57 Station Street was selected as a development site has revealed that Byron Council has apparently no studies or reports relating to how and why 57 Station Street was selected over any alternative site.
Byron Shire Council’s (BSC) eventual answer to a request for documents, made to Landcom and then Council, has incensed community members who have long questioned why that particular site was selected, over sites that they considered far more suitable.
One of the key questions that has been asked by the community over the 57 Station Street development is why that site was selected, instead of alternative sites? Yet the revelation that there’s ‘nothing in writing’ suggests that the decision to locate the affordable housing development at the site had little to no assessment to support the decision, nor investigation of alternative sites.
The Mullumbimby Residents Assoication (MRA) has repeatedly said that the larger sites of Byron Shire Council’s own car park or the area behind Woolworths, now designated to replace the 57 Station Street car park, would not only deliver more affordable housing, but would cause significantly less disruption to the town of Mullumbimby because they are less constrained sites.
Speaking to The Echo, MRA spokesperson Anando Hefly said requests for documents justifying the site selection were initially made to Landcom, however Landcom ‘advised us in writing that the studies underpinning the site selection for 57 Station Steet were commissioned by BSC, and said “a request for their release is best directed to Council”.’
Ms Hefly subsequently asked BSC the question ‘Can Council please identify the studies referred to by Landcom and release them so the public can understand the process and rationale for selecting this site’ at the September 2026 BSC meeting. However, the ‘question was never answered. In fact it was completely left off the list of questions on Council’s website record for that meeting,’ she told The Echo.
‘So I asked the question again in the October meeting.’
Ms Hefly received a response in November’s BSC agenda for the 19 November Council meeting. BSC’s response said that, ‘In April 2021, Landcom’s Partnership and Business Development Team approached Council staff to discuss opportunities for partnering with Council to deliver affordable housing projects on suitable Coucnil-owned land… The car park at 57 Station Street, Mullumbimby was identified as a potential project site. Its land use zoning, town centre location and size made it the most suitable of the Council-owned car park sites considered for discussion… Council does not hold any other studies or reports relating to the selection of this site.’
Reprehensible
‘The response I received was basically that Council has no studies or reports relating to how and why 57 Station St was selected over any alternative site,’ Ms Hefly said.
Former member of the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) and town planner, Ian Pickles, responded to the statement from BSC saying, ‘No other site investigated! It is reprehensible and, as I said in my submission and in my address to the NRPP, a significant failure in Council’s strategic planning and land asset management over some years.
‘I fail to understand how Council’s Director of Sustainable Environment and Economy can apparently completely ignore and overlook the loss of 43 public car parking spaces with no costing, or factoring in, or arrangement for replacement of these spaces; or an assessment of economic impact of their loss in the conclusion that 57 Station Street was the best site?’
Ms Hefley pointed out that, ‘this is quite extraordinary when you think about it… Council voted to do away with an essential town public amenity with no investigation whatsoever into alternatives!’
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