The NSW Government will spend $3 million on a sewer link for the Saddle Road housing precinct near Brunswick Heads, a connection it says could service up to 600 residential lots.
The funding, announced on October 30, covers design and construction of a connection to the Brunswick Valley Sewage Treatment Plant. It forms part of a $12 million package under the NSW Reconstruction Authority’s Resilient Lands Program, with the remaining funds going to projects near Casino and Grafton.
‘People rightly want to see progress, but you cannot build homes without first laying the pipes, securing the water supply, and building the roads,’ Recovery Minister Janelle Saffin said.
The precinct lies on elevated land between Brunswick Heads and Mullumbimby. It includes the proposed Gulgan Village, where Byron Shire Council anticipates between 400 and 550 dwellings, including affordable rentals. Council expects the broader precinct could eventually accommodate about 1,500 homes.
The planning proposal exhibited in June outlined an option to pump sewage to the Brunswick Heads pump station at the sports fields. At the time, Council was also investigating whether it could bring forward a direct link to the treatment plant.
The exhibited draft planning agreement put responsibility for local sewer collection and site-specific connections on the developer. It also allowed for a possible credit against developer charges where extra pump-station capacity was built to serve future development.
Council says the agreement was endorsed on October 19. The funding announcement does not spell out how the publicly funded works will fit with the developer’s obligations.
Sewer and water capacity were among the main concerns raised during public consultation on Gulgan Village, alongside traffic, building height and impacts on nearby towns. Council received 74 public submissions and four from agencies.
Council backed the village plans on September 17, and the NSW Planning Portal lists the rezoning proposal at finalisation. The sewer funding does not approve the housing development. The state has yet to set out when work on the connection will begin or when the first lots could be serviced.
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