Last Friday 28 May 2021 MidCoast Council sent out an email which provided an update on its Zoning In project and preparation of its Rural Strategy.
The Rural Strategy is important for North Arm Cove as it will determine the future of the non-urban land surrounding the village. This land is currently zoned Rural and is a "paper subdivision".
To quote from Council's update - "based on preliminary investigations, there is no evidence to support the rezoning of any paper subdivision to an urban zone that would enable development of existing individual allotments". This information is consistent with the advice provided by Council last year.
A copy of the emailed update is provided below:
You are receiving this email as you registered your interest in the Zoning in on our Future project which involves developing new planning rules for the MidCoast. Since our last email, we have been updating our Urban strategies in accordance with Council’s resolution in December 2020. The final amended documents will be uploaded to our website when they are completed.
Regarding the Rural Strategy, we are aiming to inform the community of our findings and recommendations later this year.
Given the unanticipated delays to this project, we would like to confirm the purpose and intended outcomes of this work:
The Rural Strategy follows the urban strategy work that was done in 2020 to inform the new MidCoast Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Development Control Plan (DCP).
The Rural Strategy does not identify new urban release areas or new areas of rural residential land - Council has already resolved to do these projects separately, before the new MidCoast LEP and DCP are exhibited.
We will inform the community on our draft principles for rural, environmental and waterway zones; and development controls including minimum lot sizes for subdivision.
The strategy will provide clear recommendations on the future of paper subdivisions across the MidCoast. Note: based on preliminary investigations, there is no evidence to support the rezoning of any paper subdivision to an urban zone that would enable development of existing individual allotments.
The Rural Strategy will also include long-term planning recommendations on how we can continue to improve on issues such as transport planning, identification and protection of scenic landscapes, cultural heritage and the sustainability of our rural towns and villages through: ongoing research, advocacy, partnerships, ongoing review and updating of our planning tools.
We hope that this provides some clarity on the intent and purpose of the Rural Strategy and look forward to discussing this project with you in more detail in the future.
In preparation for the community information and consultation program that will occur later in 2021, we have a dedicated area on our website for the Rural Strategy work. It can be found here – https://haveyoursay.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/draft-rural-strategy
We will continue to update this page, so if you have an interest in our rural strategy we encourage you to ‘follow’ the page (+follow) on the top left hand of the screen https://haveyoursay.midcoast.nsw.gov.au/draft-rural-strategy as this will ensure you are informed when new information is added to the page.
