There's no question housing is in short supply across the Bega Valley Shire.
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Looking to increase the provision of affordable housing options in rural zones, Bega Valley Shire Council recently exhibited a planning proposal to amend its Local Environmental Plan (LEP).
The key amendments to the existing LEP, adopted in 2013, involve a loosening of restrictions in relation to secondary dwellings and dual occupancies on land zoned as rural, without further subdivision of land.
Essentially, this means a landholder on a lot zoned for primary production or as rural landscape would be able to build a second dwelling more easily, which could benefit farmers who would like to remain on the farm and have younger family members take over the running of it. Changes to the distance allowed from the main house could help some of the properties zoned large lot residential.
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Glenn Brunette, licensee of Eden Reality, said if BVSC was serious about increasing the provision of affordable housing options in rural zones, it urgently needed to review minimum lot size mapping.
Mr Brunette has been lobbying local and state government representatives about land availability for many years, saying Eden is landlocked, with no more room to grow and that land releases are the key to Eden's future.
"I think the proposal is an improvement to what was previously overly restrictive," Mr Brunette said.
"[But] As far as improving supply of land and improving availability of affordable housing, the current proposal is just skirting around the edges of the problem and won't achieve much if anything.
"The current mapping is a joke," he said.
Mr Brunette believes the minimum lot size mapping should be redefined to take existing tenure into account, which he said would go some way in remedying the extreme shortage of available rural land with building entitlement.
Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick said while proposed changes will give families on rural properties more options, he was also of the opinion it wouldn't solve the current affordable housing issues.
Rodney McDonald, licensee of Elders Bega said the biggest issue at the moment was a lack of supply.
Regarding potential changes to zoning, Mr McDonald said identifying areas with medium sized properties which could be utilised for smaller 5-10-acre holdings would be beneficial.
"Effectively this would allow older residents to value-add their properties by subdividing them into two or three. Current zoning makes this difficult," he said.
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Cr Fitzpatrick said council needed to release more land, which involves putting a Gateway Proposal through NSW Planning.
"There are lots there which have never been released on to the market and NSW Planning regard them as available even though they aren't, it inflates the figures of land availability.
"It is a real problem for the shire, but I believe every shire on the eastern seaboard is like that," Cr Fitzpatrick said.
Comments about the planning proposal were open during the exhibition period from January 26 to February 23, 2021.
BVSC received four submissions in response and said those will be summarised and reported to council in early-mid 2021.
The 2013 LEP and maps can be accessed online here.