LEP approved; submissions fail to sway council

Listed as "Consideration of Submissions", debate on the 2010 draft LEP at the Hills Shire council meeting of 23 August 2011 was anything but. Although many post-exhibition changes were made to comply with new department of planning requirements issued during the final days of the former Labor government, all the key concerns raised by acreage landowners in their submissions – opposition to the biodiversity overlay, opposition to community title and cluster subdivision, and failure to restore the minimum lot size to 5 acres in most rural areas – were rejected as “inconsistent with Council's strategic framework”.

A few councillors expressed sympathy with these concerns, but claimed they were bound by state government directions, and unable to make simple changes such as reducing the minimum lot size to 5 acres. However this assertion has not been tested, and is contradicted by the evidence from Maraylya, where the department approved a reduction from 100 acres to 5 acres.

Following the meeting many landowners in the large gallery expressed their disappointment with the process. The 717-page report and attachments (including an 89-page table of changes) were published just 2 working days before the meeting, and on the night no speakers were invited to address the council because too many had applied! Many landowners felt that their elected representatives had again failed them, and were angry that no attempt was made to amend the LEP to satisfy concerns raised in submissions.

The LEP will now be forwarded to the Department of Planning & Infrastructure for finalisation and gazettal early 2012.