By Alex Rea

Convention puts the brakes on 800 lot proposal at Broulee

A local government convention, that a casting vote should support the status quo, saw Eurobodalla Council resolve not to support the Planning Proposal for the 800 Lot ‘Agrihood’ at Broulee proceeding to Gateway Determination.

The proposal was not supported by Council staff, nor an independent consultant.

A variety of people and groups presented to Council. The developer, Mr Ed Fernon, gave a description of all aspects of the development called The Farm on Broulee Road, adjoining Carroll College and The Bower. Two other speakers spoke for the proposal citing the need for affordable housing.

An amendment to the motion was carried to reflect that the three community groups (Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening Eurobodalla – SAGE, Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance – SHASA and Broulee Mossy Point Community Association – BMPCA), which were shown in the documentation to have supported the project, did not in fact support it.

Six speakers spoke against the proposal that would require a rezoning of the land from rural land.

One speaker questioned why they had spent so much time on the LEP and Rural Land Strategy when those decisions could be overridden. Others questioned what guarantees there were to the aims of Agrihood living, and if the homes would be affordable.

One speaker said “To believe the marketing is naïve at best.”

Questions were asked about the infrastructure (roads, traffic, water and sewer) needed to support such a large development and the capacity for planning staff to deal with the workload when there are already many developments in play in Eurobodalla.Andrew Bain, President of the BMPCA urged councillors, “Don’t be fooled! It will take away from the village and it will not bring lower prices.”

Mr Bain said that there had been no consultation and that the proposal would be a “wellness negative for Broulee.”

Presenting on behalf of A Better Eurobodalla (ABE), a community forum dedicated to having open, accountable and responsive government, Dr Deb Stevenson said “There are multiple inconsistencies in this half-baked proposal, which fails to demonstrate how many of the so-called benefits will be achieved in practice. So much so, that the independent planning consultant concludes by saying ‘the proposal represents a large urban expansion that seeks to present itself as a low density environmental living development in a currently un-serviced and isolated rural area requiring significant infrastructure development’.

Dr Stevenson continued “The Planning Proposal does not follow accepted planning practice, is inconsistent with existing planning strategies, has not provided sufficient supporting documentation and has not engaged openly and honestly with the affected community.”

While Cr Harrison said, “we need to look into this further”, and Cr Schutz said it “deserves a chance’, Cr Mayne objected to the precedent that could be set.

“What precedent does it set given that we went through an onerous process with the LEP.”

“If I’m a developer in Sydney seeing this, I’ll come and down and roll the dice!” he said.

The Mayor repeatedly said that there was a process, and that it was a proposal and not a DA they were voting on.

With Councillor Grace absent (citing a conflict of interest as a neighbour), the eight councillors voted 4 – 4 for the Motion in the negative. For

(For Worthington, Mayne, Pollock, Diskon. Against Hatcher, Harrison, Schutz and Dannock.)

This left the Mayor with a casting vote in which he went against his previous vote, to maintain the status quo.

The Motion Carried was :

THAT Council:

1. Resolves not to support the Planning Proposal proceeding to Gateway Determination, for the following reasons:

· Inconsistency with regional and local strategies, State Environmental Planning Policies and Ministerial Directions.

· The feasibility of significant infrastructure required to achieve the proposed future development is not demonstrated from a financial and environmental perspective.

· Mitigation of potential adverse effects on the biodiversity and conservation of threatened species, ecological communities and their habitats and the surrounding Illawong Nature Reserve is not demonstrated.

· Preliminary work on the Eurobodalla Housing Strategy has identified housing supply and land zoned for future residential development exceeds the projected population needs past 2041.

· The proposal will divert the necessary critical infrastructure, funding, staging, sequencing, and delivery of housing away from the existing nominated growth areas and is therefore not in the public interest.

2. Notifies the proponent of Council’s determination in accordance with section 9 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021.

3. That Council notes the receipt of correspondence from SAGE NSW Inc, Broulee Mossy Point Community Association and Southcoast Health & Sustainability Alliance refuting claims of support in the planning proposal and in the staff report.

View the full council meeting here