Time remaining for land use feedback

Landholders have less than a month to provide feedback on Snowy Monaro Regional Council’s draft Rural Land Use Strategy and draft Local Environmental Plan (LEP).

The documents are on public exhibition for the second time following an initial round of consultation that saw strong objection to large areas of land proposed to be re-zoned as ‘environmental management’.

The revised Rural Land Use Strategy has removed the proposed environmental management changes and reviewed the approach to minimum lot sizes.

Landholders are encouraged to have their say by midnight Monday February 20 and can do so online at Council’s Your Say website or by writing to Council.

On the Your Say consultation page, landholders can use an interactive map to see if their land is proposed to be re-zoned through the draft strategies.

Why are we seeking feedback from the community on these plans?

Snowy Monaro Regional Council needs to harmonise, review and update the current Bombala, Cooma-Monaro and Snowy River Local Environmental Plans (LEPs) into one comprehensive plan covering the whole Snowy Monaro Local Government Area.

Why are the Land Use Strategy and LEP changing?

The Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020 (LSPS) made clear the Snowy Monaro needs revised plans that: - Encourage environmental sustainability and connection to heritage

- Support growth and change - Protect the capacity of productive rural land

- Provide efficient, safe and sustainable infrastructure

- To create the new LEP that meets all of these objectives, we need to revise the draft Rural Land Use Strategy and the draft Settlements Strategy

Once created, the new LEP will be assessed by the NSW Government, as the set of rules that control all development in the Snowy Monaro region.

What has changed since Council last asked the community about the draft Rural Land Use Strategy?

Issues the community raised:

1. Document is too long and technical

The Rural Land Use Strategy has been re-drafted and is now focused around seven policy positions.

• All of the proposed LEP clauses have been removed and are contained within the full draft of the Snowy Monaro Regional LEP.

• The Policy context has been relocated to an Appendix of the draft Rural Land Use Strategy.

• Ministerial Directions are now contained within the Planning Proposal document.

• Hyperlinks to relevant documents embedded throughout.

2. C3 Environmental Management zoning not appropriate in most areas

• Previous proposed changes to make some rural zoned land Environmental/ Conservation Zone have been removed. The revised proposal makes that land RU1 or RU2.

• The RU2 Rural Landscape Zone benefits from all allowable activities under the Local Land Services Act.

• The change to RU2 reflects the continued agricultural use of the land.

3. Some changes to Minimum Lot Size were not appropriate

• The approach to minimum lot size (MLS) has been reviewed.

Advice from the Community Reference Group (CRG) was that a consistent methodology was necessary (particularly in relation to Zone RU1 Primary Production).

• The majority of land in the Snowy Monaro is unaffected by these changes.

• Some areas have decreased their MLS, typically on rural land around service centres where land fragmentation has occurred.

• Some areas have increased their MLS, typically based on analysis of land capability, existing holding sizes, steep slopes, erodible soils, biodiversity values and bushfire risk.

4. Dual Occupancy in rural areas would be desirable

• Dual Occupancy is proposed to be permissible in RU1 Primary Production, RU2 Rural Landscape, RU4 Primary Production Small Lots, C3 Environmental Management Zones and C4 Environmental Living Zone.

5. Lacks opportunity for diversification of rural and other industries

The RU4 Primary Production Smalls Lots provides opportunities for diversity and innovation on smaller lots. These areas are identified within discrete areas to limit the road impacts, but 40ha is large enough to undertake many boutique or artisan agricultural land uses, and provide for rural infrastructure as well as buffer areas.