SHOALHAVEN City Council’s general manager Russ Pigg has frequently found himself outvoted on issues as council’s special development committee meets to discuss aspects of the draft local environment plan.
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According to members of the SLEP 2009 Review Group, that is because councillors are regularly ignoring staff recommendations and at times ignoring statutory requirements applicable to planning regulations.
In addition there had been a large number of spot rezonings made as a result of submissions made to the LEP, yet neighbours might not even be notified of the changes, review group members warned.
“If you want to put up a pergola in your yard you have to notify your neighbours, but in this process you might not know that the place next door has just been rezoned for medium density development,” warned review group member Keith Learn.
While amendments to the plan were due to be placed back on public exhibition, Mr Learn said anyone not aware there had been changes in their neighbourhood would not look.
“The public doesn’t have a clue,” he added.
More than 3000 submissions were made to the draft LEP when it was exhibited last year, and summaries of the submissions have been considered during a series of special development committee meetings.
Those meetings have so far led to 95 attempts at spot rezoning, according to fellow review group member Frances Bray.
They included zone changes and subdivisions.
“These proposals were not in the draft policy put out on exhibition,” she pointed out.
The review group comprises representatives of 16 community consultative bodies, environmental groups and tourist associations, and members have been closely monitoring the LEP process.
They said the number of spot rezonings and subdivisions showed “it’s not a level playing field”.
“There are people manipulating the whole process by not following the rules they set themselves,” added review group member Alan Burrows.
He was particularly concerned about a proposed spot rezoning for the Vincentia shopping centre, which he claimed would allow the centre to be turned into four-storey blocks of units.
“That will change Vincentia totally,” Mr Burrows argued.
Mr Burrows said the community needed to be aware of the changes being made to the plan that was exhibited.
However he believed some would be blocked.
“More than likely the Department of Planning will stop them, because they’re out of process,” he suggested.
