The following question on notice was received from Councillor Anthony Mayne: Question A number of residents from the Broulee and Mossy Point area have raised concerns about the removal of trees on the large block of land at the corner of George Bass and Annetts Parade, Mossy Point.
Could Council outline the DA process in relation to the specific block in question, being DA Number 508/17 New Dwelling Lot 63 DP 1194047 George Bass Drive, Mossy Point, NSW? Could Council please outline its role as it remains the consent authority and OEH as an advisory role, which appears to have been disregarded to a large extent. OEH has objected to development on the subject land in 1992, 1997 and most recently July 2016 in the Eurobodalla Rural Land Review Planning Proposal. How has Council addressed these concerns through the DA process? How does Council ensure that the rare coastal remnant Bangalay Sand Forest, an endangered ecological community, which provides wetland and conservation buffer values, is appropriately managed through the process? The staff response is:
Development Application 508/17 was lodged in March 2017 seeking to build a dwelling on the subject land. The application was determined in June 2018 after an amended proposal was provided to Council. The original application was referred to the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) as the land contains an Endangered Ecological Community (EEC). The advice received is detailed in the letter attached to the Question on Notice. (Editor: as yet we do not have that letter) Following the advice received from OEH and Council’s internal assessment, a request for further information was sent to the applicant in April 2017 and an amended proposal was received in 2018. There were a number of discussions between Council and the applicant/applicant’s consultants in preparing the amended application. The original and revised application were both supported by various reports, including a flora/fauna assessment undertaken in accordance with the relevant NSW Government legislation. The revised assessment addressed the concerns raised by OEH and concluded that the impacts were not significant, and therefore no grounds to refuse the Development Application. It is important to note that the flora/fauna assessment was carried out by a qualified ecologist, who is an accredited assessor under the OEH’s own accreditation scheme. The advice from OEH was not ignored. It is also important to note that as part of the proposal, the remainder of the land is to be conserved by a Vegetation Management Plan (VMP) that has been attached to the title of the land. Any subsequent landowner must abide by the terms of the VMP, which included active conservation of the EEC and restoration of previously impacted areas. In regard to the previous advice from OEH objecting to the development of this land, it has been determined from an August 1997 Council report that: The 1992 advice from National Parks and Wildlife Service was to oppose the rezoning of the land to 1(c) Rural Small Holdings. The land was subsequently rezoned to Rural Small Holdings and this is the current zoning of the property today. The advice in 1997 was from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and it related to an 81 lot subdivision (the Estuary Estate), which originally proposed the subdivision of the subject land into 16 lots. This proposal was not pursued because of concerns from NPWS about habitat loss for endangered species. The lot was created during the Estuary Estate development as a residual 13 hectare lot that may be subject to further development once the identified studies had been carried out. The 2016 advice was from the Office of Environment and Heritage and related to the proposed zoning under the Rural Land Strategy Proposal which proposes part E2 and part E4 zones over the land. In assessing the development application, one of Council’s key goals was to provide some certainty around the conservation of the land. A dwelling has been approved on the land and there are some impacts associated with that use but this has been offset by the remainder of the site being protected and measures put in place to actively conserve the Endangered Ecological Community. RECOMMENDATION THAT the response to the question regarding DA508/17 New Dwelling Lot 63 DP1194047 George Bass Drive, Mossy Point raised by Councillor Anthony Mayne be received and noted.
