FORMER staff member David Seymour opened the May meeting of Eurobodalla Shire Council by calling for an extension of time for the public to digest and comment on the draft Local Environmental Plan (LEP).
However, it seemed some councillors already had that in mind and later in the meeting a motion from Councillor Chris Vardon was carried to extend the exhibition and public submission time from June 12 to July 24.
It was also decided to hold a public meeting in Moruya during the exhibition period, and for staff discussions with concerned groups to continue.
Mr Seymour spoke during Public Forum on behalf of Earthlands Consulting, independent planning practitioners. He said the six weeks allocated for the exhibition wasn’t enough time for people to acquaint themselves of the plan’s potential.
He said it was a draft of substantial quality that introduced some new legislation on the use of land. He urged council to arrange a public forum to discuss it.
Cr Allan Brown asked him if he could see any main issues of which the community should be made aware? Mr Seymour said there were several issues about which landowners had been approaching him.
There was particular concern that the new plan prohibited uses allowed under the current regulations.
Later in the meeting Cr Vardon said he had received a number of calls from people concerned about aspects of the proposed LEP.
“Some are saying it flies in the face of settlement strategies,” he said.
Cr Vardon said he didn’t favour a public meeting as it could become emotional, but later agreed to one, on a date to be set. Crs Allan Brown,
Graham Scobie and Chris Kowal by then had spoken in favour of a public forum, Cr Kowal suggested there should be one each in Moruya, Batemans Bay and Narooma.
Mayor Fergus Thomson was reluctant to have a public meeting, saying it would be preferable for council to go on talking to invited groups.
Cr Keith Dance also thought that was the best course. “If we don’t get this right,” he said, “it will haunt us forever.”
He claimed council hadn’t got it right with the current LEP, introduced in 1987. It was too important to rush, he added, saying he didn’t care if it took until Christmas.
Coastwatchers to comment on plan
The recently released Eurobodalla Draft Local Environment Plan (LEP) was the subject of a meeting with the Council and Coastwatchers will be forwarding a comprehensive submission broadly supporting the new planning rules.
Coastwatchers president Mark Fleming said, “For the first time in the history of the shire’s planning, all the relevant maps and supporting information can be found in the one document that clearly sets out the future of development in the Shire”.
“In particular, the sensitive coastal lands and flood prone areas are clearly identified and we congratulate the Council for incorporating an 80 metre buffer zone around the areas waterways”.
“Also the vegetation and endangered ecological communities are mapped and included in the Draft LEP. This means that anyone thinking of purchasing land in the future can have a clear understanding of the constraints to development before purchase”.
He continued, “We do have some issues that we will address in our submission. In particular, if the plan is approved it will be possible to build ‘electricity generation works’ on all rural land types.
“This means that anywhere in the Shire your next door neighbour could build a large nuclear or Bio-mass power generator. We will be calling for the Council to expressly define nuclear and bio-mass power plants in these zones as a prohibited use in the LEP.”
“We have concerns about some of the Urban Expansion zones, particularly areas like Mystery Bay, which would see the doubling of the village and is miles from centralised services at Narooma.
“On the other hand we are supporting the logical expansion of Narooma to the south. Both the Mystery Bay and Dalmeny sites may have threatened species present that would constrain development”.
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