VOICE. TREATY. TRUTH. LET’S WORK TOGETHER FOR A SHARED FUTURE: NAIDOC WEEK The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 34 #05 • Wednesday, July 10, 2019 • www.echo.net.au
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It’s Mob Week!
Byron tourist hotel gets court approval Hans Lovejoy
The flag’s up so let the celebrations begin – Bundjalung mob from near and far came to celebrate NAIDOC week, an important occasion on the Indigenous calendar and the wider community. A family fun day from 11am at the Mullumbimby and District Neighbourhood Centre in Dalley Street is planned on Wednesday (today). The events culminate in the annual Arakwal Family Cultural Day and march from 10am on Thursday in Byron Bay, meeting at the Tourist Information Centre next to Railway Park for a march to Dening Park, Main Beach. Photo Eve Jeffery
Greens mayor defends enviro cred Eve Jeffery Veteran environmental campaigner Murray Muzz Drechsler has joined the Extinction Rebellion (XR) group, in an effort to make governments at every level sit up and take notice as the climate crisis becomes the climate emergency. Drechsler says XR will be holding Byron Shire Council accountable for their actions. An XR climate emergency peaceful family picnic is planned in the park outside Council’s Mullum chambers this Friday from 9am. Muzz says, ‘Council have
Byron Shire Council Notices ▶ p10
declared a climate emergency, but they haven’t acted upon it. Not only have they not acted on it, they are going to clear critically endangered wetland rainforest for a bypass.’ Additionally Muzz says, ‘There have been several fish kills at Tallows and one at Belongil. You’d think after three of four fish kills they would know what was going to happen.’ Yet Greens mayor Simon Richardson says that the actions that have created the climate emergency have been decades in the making. ‘It will not take months to solve them. We all need strong
The battle of the rail reports ▶ p12
determination and commitment to tackle these problems and we can do this by resisting the actions that are creating the problems and so we need those committed to resist the problems to do so.’ Cr Richardson says that Council is establishing a 5MW solar farm, ‘by far the biggest for this area and most of NSW’. ‘We are also along the path of establishing a bioenergy facility, which will be the first in Australia. We also resisted the push to lose the use of our transport corridor for mass transport and Council’s ▶ Continued on page 2
A Land & Environment Court decision upholding an appeal has approved a large tourist hotel proposal for 4 Marvell Street, Byron Bay. If unchallenged by Council, it may provide a precedent for future developments in the town. Council’s legal counsel Ralph James told The Echo advice is being sought from its external lawyers as to potential grounds of appeal and prospects of success. ‘Any decision to appeal will not be taken under delegation’, he said. The orders by commissioner Jenny Smithson on June 27 overruled Council staff’s DA refusal, which was based on ‘the height, floor space ratio (FSR), character and design of the building; the adequacy of the proposed carparking; social and environmental impacts on the surrounding area; precedent; and the public interest’. The four-storey mixed-use building proposal is by Scott Emery and comprises a 24-room hotel and a ground-floor restaurant, rooftop pool and bar above two ground floor retail tenancies. A 18-car-bay basement is also proposed. The Echo also asked James, ‘Could Council have won this case if its planning instruments were more explicit in defining and limiting height restrictions, ie is there a way to ensure less flexibility and more prescriptive planning outcomes?’ James replied, ‘In terms of Clause 4.6 of Byron LEP 2014, this is a compulsory standard Instrument clause in LEPs across NSW. There is little scope for Council to amend the wording of this particular provision’.
Former Greens MLC Ian Cohen says Greens councillors have lost their way ▶ p16
Shool holidays fun time ▶ p22
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Regarding precedent, lawyers representing Council told the court they were concerned that the ‘approval of the development would encourage further height breaches in the area’.
Community expectations ‘Further, the community expected the council to impose applicable development standards and ensure that development did not generate negative impacts on the surrounding area. If approved, this development would set a precedent that undermines the development standards that the community expects to be upheld’. A past case of similar contention was referred to, which determined that precedent was a valid consideration. Council’s lawyers are quoted in the judgment: ‘It will impact on the streetscape and there is a real possibility that, in this attractive location of Byron Bay, other applications may seek similar development outcomes’. ‘The development would create an additional storey to enable a use (the bar) that could accommodate up to 100 people at any one time. This was more patrons and noise than the controls permit’. Yet commissioner Smithson considered that the ‘development will not create an adverse precedent given all of the circumstances of the case’. ‘My decision in supporting the height breach should therefore not be construed as supporting fourstorey development in the town centre, per se. I accept such an ▶ Continued on page 3
Mandy Nolan muses on the power of money ▶ p35