Rodney Stevens, Clarence Valley Independent
A request by The James Creek Residents Group for an independent Landscape Architect to research and report on a proposed controversial subdivision has been rejected by Clarence Valley Council in less than 24 hours.
The Development Application DA from MPD Investments for a 332-lot sub-division, comprising 327 residential lots, one commercial lot and four drainage reserves and public open space areas for 104 James Creek Road is currently on public exhibition.
About 5pm on September 1, Lorri Brown sent a letter to Clarence Valley Council CVC senior staff and councillors on behalf of the James Creek Residents Group JCRG and said she was shocked to receive a reply at 11.36m the next day.
“The speed at which the response came does worry us, because you wonder how much it had actually been considered,” she said.
“What worries us is it’s the first subdivision out here in the hinterland of what we call Yamba and it’s important to do it correctly.
“If we’re going to subdivide land out here, we need to do it properly, that’s all we’re saying. “Let’s get the first one right as a template for others to follow.
“When the JCRG asked council for a specific Development Control Plan DCP that applied to the proposed development, Mrs Brown said they were told the DCP is on the council website.
“The only control plans over it are for what you find in residential areas like Maclean or Yamba, and that’s what they’re applying,” she said.
The JCRG stated in the letter they requested the research and report from an independent Landscape Architect because, as they understood, CVC didn’t currently employ anyone with “the necessary credentials”.
“For whatever reason there is no DCP or other guiding development controls currently in place for James Creek,” the letter to council stated.
“We need to know how this subdivision will impact the natural and built landscape. “We have a responsibility to ensure that this is a development that is fit for the future.”
Issues that would be assessed by the Landscape Architect requested in the JCRG letter included the impacts of a car dependent estate, why there are no designated electric vehicle charging stations and recommended locations and the implications with roads that don’t comply to minimum carriageway requirements.
The projected effectiveness of heating /cooling for proposed building designs, the proposed density, small blocks, and heat banks were other issues to be assessed in the letter from JCRG.
“An evaluation of the designated park areas that have been flagged by council as inadequate for the density of the population,” the JCRG requested.
“The realistic planting of trees in the designated footpath spaces, an environmental impact statement on the natural and built landscape, transition and buffer zones relating to neighbouring agricultural land and an evaluation of the subdivisions impact on the local ecosystem.”
The assessments requested by the JCRG would necessitate a six-week extension in the progression of the DA, which the CVC General Manager Laura Black said she was “unable to provide” in her email reply.
“Council recently adopted its Community Participation Plan that sees the previously adopted 14 day exhibition period for complex DA’s like James Creek extended to 28 days,” Ms Black wrote.
“Twenty-eight days brings our exhibition timeframes in line with that required for large Environmental Impact Statements for state significant infrastructure projects (for example major highways and bridges).
“This is policy position of Council, and it can only be varied by resolution.”
Ms Black also alluded to problems a six-week extension would cause with the body that will ultimately decide the DA’s fate, the Northern Regional Planning Panel NRPP, which determines developments with a capital investment of more than $30 million.
“I have also advised councillors’ that the Northern Regional Planning Panel requested that council officers make every effort to submit the DA to them before the end of the calendar year for their consideration, to ensure timely decision making for all stakeholders,” Ms Black wrote.
“A six week extension would impede this happening.”
Ms Black reminded the JCRG public submissions can be made on the DA, which closes this Friday, September 7, at 4pm.
“And you are advised, submitters are able to speak at the public meeting held when the matter goes before the NRPP, providing additional opportunity to make representations to the panel,” Ms Black wrote.
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 7 September 2022.
