Wollongong City Council at its Extraordinary Meeting on 5 July has voted to begin the rezoning process for 16 precincts around Helensburgh, Otford and Stanwell Tops.
The Draft Planning Proposal dealing with these areas will now be submitted to the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure for review and approval prior to going on public exhibition.
The Council report addressed submissions received over the last two years following two rounds of community consultation on options for the future of the 7(d) lands. The draft Review of 7(d) lands was exhibited in 2009 and resulted in 3,447 submissions, while the Preliminary Review of Submissions was exhibited in 2010 and resulted in 19,395 submissions.
In voting to accept the recommendation Council will now advance a draft Planning Proposal to rezone the precincts to either a higher environmental conservation zone, or a zone that better reflects existing development or will allow some minor additional development.
Council Administrator Dr Col Gellatly AO said the review dealt with a number of complex, historic issues and the environmental attributes of the former 7(d) Hacking River Environmental Protection zone at Helensburgh, Otford and Stanwell Tops.
“Council will now forward the draft Planning Proposal to the Department seeking approval to begin public exhibition,” Dr Gellatly said. “Final decisions following public exhibition of the Planning Proposal will be made by the incoming Council after 3 September.”
“The 7(d) Review has considered regional issues and divided the study into a number of precincts and the recommendations for each of these areas were guided by the principles of retaining significant bushland, retaining water quality of the Hacking River, improving bushfire mitigation for existing residential areas, considering the future development options and reviewing the dwelling entitlement issue of the lots in the areas identified.”
Background
The 7(d) Hacking River Environmental Protection zone was introduced in the 1980s and 1990s as a means of limiting development to protect the water quality of the Royal National Park and Hacking River. The zone has resulted in inequities between adjoining landowners, those with and without dwelling houses, and has prevented many land owners from building a dwelling house on their land.
The 7(d) lands contain significant bushland which is connected to the Woronora Catchment area, Royal National Park and Illawarra Escarpment. The area is also the head waters of the Hacking River. The extensive bushland results in a high bushfire risk. Conversely, some of the 7(d) lands have been historically cleared for farming, tourism, coal mining, industrial uses and housing. There were 777 lots zoned 7(d) Hacking River Environmental Protection under the Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 1990. The lots are owned by 303 landowners and / or companies. The lots range in size from 42 square metres to 133 hectares. The majority of the lots (58 per cent or 457 lots) are between 500m2 and 2,000m2 in size. Only 108 of these lots contain dwellings.
There has been a long history associated with the conservation and possible development of the 7(d) lands, including the Helensburgh Commission of Inquiry (1994). One of the main issues is the permissibility of dwelling houses. Some owners have owned land since 1965, in the hope that planning controls may change to enable a house to be built. In other instances, planning controls have changed which has prevented a dwelling being built where it was previously permissible.
For more information you can visit Council’s website at www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au or call Customer Service on (02) 4227 7111.