A Time To Yell!

Since Walter Burley Griffin’s original plan went to Stroud Shire Council in 1918, our beautiful Baromee peninsula has been frequently let down by councils. Now, with MidCoast Council complaining how stretched it is over its 10,000 square kilometres, getting Council to do things for us is harder than ever. Promises are made and broken. Hopes are raised and dashed. It’s as if they think we will just give up and go away.

Over the past few decades, much-valued facilities have been added to our village: like the Community Centre, the Tennis Court, the Community Garden, Yallarwah and more. What do these have in common? They were all community initiatives, involved concerted community efforts, the seeking of grants and dragging the council-of-the-day to the party.

We are now so far remote from MidCoast Council that we need to all “yell” together to be heard. Concerted effort is more important than ever. If Council hears a message once, they will probably just ignore it. If they hear it one hundred times (in different words) they are more likely to take notice.

An LEP might seem at first glance to be a load of bureaucratic gobbledegook but it is a template that will shape the future development of this region. Combined with flawed State Government legislation and regulations, if this proposed LEP were to be implemented as-is, our little piece of paradise could turn into something we no longer recognise.

Some classifications in the proposed LEP may be more due to carelessness than intention. As Bob Reid has pointed out, Heros is set to lose its RE1 (Public Recreation) status. Why? Surely a mistake! At the same time, the central third of Casuarina Reserve, which had been "Road Reserve", is finally (and appropriately) proposed to join the rest of that park as RE1! Such inconsistency within the LEP makes no sense at all.

All the park/reserve areas in the village need to be classified as RE1. The plan should, but doesn’t, classify Yallarwah and Water Street Reserves as RE1. That needs to be fixed. Why are they missing?  Did the authors of the LEP ever visit North Arm Cove before putting pen to paper? I believe that all “road reserve” areas within the village area that are not actual roads should also be classified as RE1. It is not like we have a surfeit of parks within the village.

State Government rules assume that Rural and Environmental Conservation lots are acreages: the LEP says at least 20 hectares for Rural and 5 hectares for Environmental. The rules specify what activities and structures on these require Council approval. So to gain Council approval to build a house, the LEP requires that an Environmental (C4) lot be at least 5 hectares. But the State Government rules allow exempt developments on C4 land without specifying any minimum size of lot. These rules and regulations were drawn up without taking into account the idiosyncrasies of “paper subdivisions”.

Exempt and complying development needs to be subject to the same minimum lot size. Fifty or more of the “paper subdivision” lots around the village could fit within one 5-hectare area. Some lots are as small as 300 square metres! There are thousands of paper subdivision lots. But the owners of each of those C4-classified lots, under the proposed LEP and current government rules, could erect, for example, two 20 square metre sheds without approval. If this sort of uncontrolled development is allowed, what environmental value would the land surrounding our village have left? 

Council don’t want to ruffle State Government feathers by challenging anything in case doing so delays the final approval of the LEP. But this proposed LEP cannot be left the way it is.

It is time for us to “yell” together. Don’t delay. Have your say.