GOD SAVE ABC TV FROM ITS ENDLESS MOURNING AND FAWNING The Byron Shire Echo • Volume 37 #14 • September 14, 2022 • www.echo.net.au
Rural housing rules eased
Theatre is back!
Paul Bibby
NORPA’s new show, Love For One Night at The Eltham Hotel, opened to full houses last weekend, with more than 700 people enjoying the production. Organisers say weekend performances of the show have already sold out, but at the time of writing, tickets are still available for some weeknight performances. The production will run until September 24. Organisers say, ‘Love For One Night is a series of love stories told through story, movement and song with a live band scoring all the action. The Eltham Hotel itself becomes both set and character with live videography projected onto its façade and the audience taking it all in from tiered theatre seating constructed in front of the hotel’. Tickets are available at www.norpa.org.au. Photo of actress Katia Molino by Jeff Dawson
Bruns residents told to expect temp housing Hans Lovejoy Questions remain unanswered and handballed while secrecy still surrounds Council’s negotiations with Resilience NSW over plans to create housing for 180 people affected by flooding in Brunswick Heads. Two locations were announced by Mayor Michael Lyon last week; one is located behind the Stan Thompson Oval on Tweed Street, ‘which will accommodate more
Chamber warns of job losses if letting policy adopted ▶ p7
than 45 self-contained temporary housing units for up to 160 people’. The other is located at Torakina Road and Excelsior Drive, Bayside, which will host ‘ten self-contained units accommodating more than 20 people’. The site is next to the Lilly Pilly Community Preschool and Bayside Park. Short notice was given for two ‘community drop-in sessions’, which were undertaken on September 13. The Echo asked the mayor where
Rebuilding for the next flood ▶ p8
he was sourcing the numbers from regarding how many locals are in need of urgent accommodation. He did not supply a source, but replied, ‘In terms of the numbers of displaced Byron Shire households in need of temporary accommodation, it is a moving target, as people’s situations change, but we know that it is upwards of 500 households that were displaced’. The Echo asked ‘Given the plans ▶ Continued on page 6
North Coast news ▶ p10
We’re here to connect the property dots.
Those living on rural Community Title (CT) properties will be able to use their land for secondary dwellings and dual occupancies, after Byron Council amended the planning rules at its last meeting. Councillors hope the decision, which also affects rural Multiple Occupancies (MOs), will provide much-needed additional housing to help address the Shire’s housing crisis. It means that those who own land on Community Title properties will be able to submit a Development Application (DA) for permission to build a cabin, granny flat or even a second house on their land. They have previously been forbidden from doing this, even though those with conventional Torrens Title ownership in rural areas have long been able to do so. Those with a holding on a Multiple Occupancy will also be able to submit DAs of this nature, but only once the property in question has been converted to Community Title. The move follows a month-long community consultation process, which produced 144 submissions, 133 of which were in favour of the plan. With the amendment passed by councillors, it will now go to the Department of Planning for final approval before being passed into law. ‘The reasons why this move is needed: the housing crisis, and the mass exodus of long-term residents and families from the area, have increased many-fold since Council’s original resolution on this matter,’ said Avital Sheffer from Northern Rivers Intentional Communities. ‘It’s a rational, forward-thinking response to the crisis of housing
Lilac House fine revoked ▶ p11
and social cohesion.’ But there is also opposition to the plan. Some locals expressed concern during the consultation period that the new rules cannot guarantee an increase in affordable housing, only that CT land will have greater land value. In response, staff acknowledged that there was currently no mechanism to guarantee any additional dwellings would be used for affordable housing. ‘The proposal will only enable additional housing supply in our rural areas,’ staff said. Another key concern is that the additional dwellings will end up being used as Airbnbs and other forms of Short Term Rental Accommodation (STRA). Again, Council staff acknowledged that there was ‘no guarantee that additional dwellings don’t end up being used for STRA’. They said that conditions of development consent could be applied by the Council which forbade this use, but these could potentially be overridden by State policy. Cognisant of this concern, councillors have previously requested a report from staff exploring Council’s ability to enforce consent conditions existing now, or in the future, which limited short term rental use of residential accommodation. Finally, concerns have also been expressed that amending the rules will precipitate a development freefor-all in the Shire’s rural heart, with CT and MO landholders lining up to knock up a new dwelling. In response, staff noted that controls within the Shire’s key planning documents, the Byron LEP and DCP, would remain in force.
Charge up Bangalow’s billycarts the Chinny on are set to roll this Saturday ▶ p22 Sunday! ▶ p24