Letters
Boatharbour plans The Brunswick Heads Boat Harbour Masterplan will be embraced by those who enjoy boating on the Brunswick. However, there are significant issues underpinning the project that are deserving of scrutiny. The Crown’s documents admit the marina will not be
economically viable. The big fee-paying yachts are unlikely to be attracted to it because of the shallowness of the harbour and the problems of the bar to the river. This means the berths will, in all probability, be taken up by boats that are normally transported around on trailers. Appendix 4 and Report
4 introduce the term ‘cross subsidisation’. Translated, it means revenue needs to be raised by encouraging private investment in land-based activities to achieve viability. While the Crown will deny the relationship, this is an oblique reference to approximately 3,200sqm of freehold land at the Fishermen’s
Co-Op which was recently sold to a private investment fund. With the development restricted to ‘existing use rights’ the case is made to change Byron Council’s Local Environment Plan 2014 to realise upmarket accommodation, food and beverage outlets and retail. Then there is the big picture about traffic generation from the site. All up there are a maximum of 266 car-parking spaces proposed, of which 64 are for boat trailers. If tandem parking evolves, as at Southport, then you have the potential of 330 car-parking spaces and movement of vehicles. The scale of what is proposed needs to be carefully considered. Responses to the survey about the project need to consider these issues. Patricia Warren Brunswick Heads
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Rural land strategy badly flawed Q This Council has grand plans for us. Their Rural Land Use Strategy is primarily a 20-year urban release strategy, identifying some 745ha of rural land suitable for urban development. This could represent over 12,000 houses. Council is proposing seven new town/suburb areas: two west of Byron (Skinners Shoot and adjoining Ewingsdale), one south of Brunswick Heads (Dudgeons Road), three north of Mullumbimby (Saddle Road, Mullumbimby Creek, Coolamon Scenic Drive) and one south of Billinudgel. Once such lands are identified in a strategy, it is just a matter of time before they proceed. Though Council is saying there is no need to panic because they are going to prepare a residential strategy to prioritise their release over the next 20 years, I will be surprised if they don’t immediately release them all. This is in addition to the 400–800 houses they are proposing for development as large lot residential subdivision, multiple occupancy development or rural community title subdivision in seven other areas. I support the concept of slowing our growth, not accelerating it. We already have
enough land zoned for development to keep us growing at a rapid rate for the next 20 years. We don’t need more rural land released. You have until May 20 to comment on the draft Byron Shire Rural Land Use Strategy, though you can be sure that Council doesn’t care what you think. Dailan Pugh Byron Bay Q Shire residents should be aware of the implications of the poor planning process involved in the Draft Byron Rural Land Use Strategy, now on exhibition until May 20. The pro-development majority faction is bulldozing this through so that it can be signed off before its term expires at the end of July. The 22 amendments passed at the March 17 Council meeting by Cr Ibrahim are certainly not ‘generally minor changes’, the description Sol attributed to Shannon Burt, director of planning, in last week’s Echo. The strategy has become confused. Applications for rural housing development are no longer restricted to the designated priority areas in the north of the Shire – Main Arm, The Pocket and
Middle Pocket – but are now open across the Shire in areas mapped as unconstrained or assessable as well as significant farmland (some restrictions apply). No limits apply now to the number of rural residential lot houses across the Shire and the 815 houses projected in the north are still included. The previous minimum of 25 large rural residential lots on 10ha minimum has been ditched. It is now maybe possible to have three houses on one hectare. Rural housing lots no longer need to be clustered. They can now be developed to the east of the Highway (previously only west). Prior meddling introduced clauses that allow development outside the designated areas if land is 100 metres from a school bus route or is adjacent to a ‘major local or regional road’. The supposed failsafe of this rural land release program is that areas identified must have adequate infrastructure, ie roads/causeways and costs of upgrades must be borne by the developers at no cost to the wider community. As we know from previous experience at Main Arm, development occurs
and needed upgrades never happen, or the costs revert to the community. This amended strategy might appeal to some but it is backward planning and it can only be hoped that the NSW Department of Planning does not sign off on it. I urge residents to write submissions objecting to this plan and attend a community meeting at Kohinur Hall onSaturday April 23 from 2pm to 4pm. See www.facebook. com/MainArmCommunity. Judy MacDonald Upper Pocket
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Letters to the Editor
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Wednesday 27 April
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NICK CUNNINGHAM The Byron Shire Echo April 20, 2016 11