Tweed Shire Council Rural Land Strategy Tender # EQ2012-197 Stage 2 - Issues Analysis Final Report: Stage 2 January 2014 Tweed Shire Council: Rural Land Strategy: Stage 2 Issues Paper (Final) Explanation This document analyses issues raised and considered during Stages 1 and 2 of the Tweed Shire Rural Land Strategy. The document needs to be read in conjunction with the Stage 1 report for the project, titled Tweed Shire Rural Land Strategy Resource Inventory and Land Capability Assessment prepared for the Tweed Council by Urban Enterprise Pty Ltd and EnPlan Partners. The two documents collectively information required by the project as a basis for completion of Stages 3 and 4 of the Tweed Shire Rural Land Strategy . EnPlan Australia Pty Ltd has prepared this document, based on consideration of a large amount of information provided by the Council, and accessed by the Project Team from other sources. The document takes into account and considers the consultation feedback accrued during the project. The project relates to the privately owned rural lands of the Tweed Shire. It does not include consideration of public lands in the Shire. The above-mentioned Tweed Shire Rural Land Strategy Resource Inventory and Land Capability Assessment identifies relevant reference material used during Stages 1 and 2 of the project. While effort has been made to identify all main material used, there has been a ‘bottomless pit’ of information accessed by the Project Team in the preparation of documents for Stages 1 and 2 of the Project, and professional judgements have been required on where to draw the ‘bottom line’. However the Project Team is confident that all relevant information available and known to it that enables the preparation of a well-considered Rural Land Strategy for the Tweed Shire has been accessed and considered. Many conflicting views have been expressed, and there is a strong body of state and local legislation, policy, and strategic content that is identified in the accompanying Tweed Shire Rural Land Strategy Resource Inventory and Land Capability Assessment report, and considered during the preparation of this document. Strong effort has been made to consider all of the often conflicting community and agency feedback that has been received, particularly regarding matters relating to rural subdivision, appropriate rural lot sizes, the number of dwellings on lots, the use and management of rural land, and potentials for the Shire associated with different land uses. Any opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and cannot be inferred to represent the opinions of the Tweed Shire Council. Readers should take appropriate advice regarding the suitability of the information in this document for their own needs. While considerable effort has been devoted to accuracy in this document based on information available to the project team, EnPlan Australia Pty Ltd does not accept responsibility for its use or interpretations by parties other than EnPlan, or for uses other than those for which the report has been prepared. Authors : Graeme David, Darrel Brewin. Document clearance This document is cleared as follows: Person Position Document # Date Graeme David Director, EnPlan Partners EP140115TSC 15 January 2014 Signed: Director EnPlan Australia Pty Ltd Email: [email protected] For and on behalf of EnPlan Partners Web: www.enplan.com.au Date: 15 January 2014 Distribution: Tweed Shire Acknowledgement The Tweed Shire covers traditional lands of the Bundjalung Aboriginal Nation, which extends from the Logan River in Queensland in the north to as far south as the Clarence River. This land and its waterways, together with its diverse plants and animals, sustained all facets of Aboriginal life and culture by providing food and medicine and a focus for recreational, ceremonial, and spiritual activity. The traditional lands are also associated with the dreaming stories and cultural learning that is still passed on today. Tweed Shire Council: Rural Land Strategy: Stage 2 Issues Paper (Final) CONTENTS 1 THE BIG PICTURE 5 1.1 Rural land. 5 1.2 Tweed Shire overview. 5 2 INTRODUCTION 8 2.1 What is a strategic plan? 8 2.2 Project objectives. 8 2.3 Project scope. 8 2.4 Project Stages. 9 2.5 Community consultation. 9 Analysis of consultation response. 9 Consultation response from other related projects. 10 Comment on consultation responses. 11 Relevance of consultation response. 11 Responses from local government and government agencies. 11 2.6 Purpose and structure of this report. 14 3 SOME PRELIMINARIES 15 3.1 Land use planning principles. 15 3.2 The roles of Commonwealth, State and Local Government. 15 3.3 Rural land planning. 15 Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. 15 State Environment Protection Policies. 16 Tweed LEP and the Tweed Community Strategic Plan 2013/2023. 16 3.4 Other main Strategies and Policies. 17 4 ANALYSIS 18 4.1 Climate change 18 What is the issue? 18 What are the facts relating to the issue? 18 What has the community said about the issue? 18 Issue analysis. 18 Climate change and land capability. 19 4.2 Biophysical capabilities and constraints 19 What is the issue? 19 What are the facts relating to the issue? 20 Soils. 21 Soil Landscapes. 21 Land capability (general). 21 Land capability for rural dwellings and associated development. 22 Land capability for agriculture. 22 State and Council principles and requirements for rural planning and rural subdivision. 22 Tweed Community Strategic Plan 2011/2021. 24 What has the community said about the issue? 24 Issue analysis. 24 Source of biophysical information. 25 Flooding. 27 Enhancing future assessment of land capability. 27 4.3 Communities/Community wellbeing 34 What is the issue? 34 What are the facts relating to the issue? 35 Community well-being. 35 Rural villages. 35 Social and demographic change. 36 Conflict. 38 ‘Right to farm’. 38 ‘Duty of Care’ and associated concepts. 39 Section 149 Certificates. 39 What has the community said about the issue? 40 Tweed Shire Council: Rural Land Strategy: Stage 2 Issues Paper (Final) Community (general). 40 Rural villages. 41 Conflict (including the ‘Right to Farm’ and associated concepts). 41 Issue analysis 42 Rural villages. 43 Conflict. 44 Section 149 Certificates. 45 4.4 Pressure for land use change 47 What is the issue? 47 What are the facts of the issue? 47 What has the community said about the issue? 52 Farming operations. 53 Issue Analysis. 53 4.4.1 Subdivision and Rural lot size 55 What is the issue? 55 What are the facts relating to the issue? 55 The 40 ha minimum lot size in broadacre farming areas. 57 Rural subdivision. 58 Subdivision and agriculture. 59 Subdivision in native vegetation areas. 60 Subdivision and lot size in flood prone areas. 60 Subdivision and land degradation hazards. 61 What has the community said about the issue? 61 Issue analysis 62 Potential for allocating smaller minimum lot sizes. 65 Lot size and land capability. 67 Lot size and land use conflict. 68 Lot size and ‘net community benefit’. 68 Principles for considering subdivision. 69 Potential for further smaller lots. 71 4.4.2 Dwelling entitlements and housing options 71 What is the issue? 71 What are the facts relating to the issue? 71 Rural workers dwellings. 72 Rural Landsharing Communities (including cluster development and multiple occupancies). 73 Community schemes and Neighbourhood Schemes. 73 Complying and non-complying development. 74 What has the community said about the issue? 74 Issue analysis. 75 Second dwellings on lots. 76 Rural Landsharing Communities. 76 Community schemes. 78 4.5 Biodiversity 78 What is the issue? 78 What are the facts relating to the issue? 78 What has the community said about the issue? 81 Issue analysis. 82 4.6 Landscape character and scenic amenity 83 What is the issue? 83 What are the facts relating to the issue? 84 What has the community said about the issue? 84 Issue analysis. 85 4.7 Public Infrastructure 87 What is the issue? 87 What are the facts relating to the issue? 87 What has the community said about the issue? 88 Issues analysis. 89 4.8 Extractive and mining resources 89 What is the issue? 89 What are the facts relating to the issue? 89 What has the community said about the issue? 91 Extractive industries generally. 91 Coal Seam Gas. 91 Issue analysis. 91 Tweed Shire Council: Rural Land Strategy: Stage 2 Issues Paper (Final) 4.9 Tourism 91 What is the issue? 91 What are the facts relating to the issue? 91 What has the community said about the issue? 93 Issue analysis. 94 4.10 Governance 95 What is the issue? 95 What are the facts relating to the issue? 95 What has the community said about the issue? 96 Issue analysis 97 The current project. 97 Governance in general planning operations. 97 ‘Duty of care’. 97 4.11 The do-nothing scenario 100 What has occurred? 100 What will occur in the future if no strategic change occurs? 100 APPENDICES 103 Appendix 1 Analysis summaries of Soil Landscape aggregations. 103 FIGURES Figure 1: Soil Landscape aggregation units in Tweed Shire. 26 TABLES Table 1: Aggregated collation of community responses. 11 Table 2: Hierarchy for consideration of land capability and land limitations for considering changed land use and information requirements in Development Applications where required by Council. 29 Table 3: Level 3 of land capability and site limitations analysis of sites proposed for land use change or Development Applications. 31 Table 4: Multiple property transactions from randomly selected districts in Tweed Shire, demonstrating escalating property values in the period from around 1989 to 2009. 48 Table 5: Current reporting requirements for land subdivision proposals in Tweed Shire. 50 Table 6: NSW State rural land subdivision principles.