Council Report Recommends E2 Environmental Conservation Zoning

This post is a copy of this evening’s email newsletter. Please subscribe to our email list to receive all updates.

Dear Friends

We need your support tonight and tomorrow morning to quickly email or phone our councillors and lobby them to support the council’’s public submissions report recommendation to zone the Scout Land E2 Environmental Conservation. Details below.

1.    An incremental victory – Council Report Recommends E2 Zoning.
2.    Lobbying all councillors before tomorrow night’s meeting.
3.    Application to close Sussex St and Bournemouth St paper roads.
4.    Getting ready for a re-exhibition of the LEP for public submissions.

Council Recommends E2 Zoning for Scout Land

The Sutherland Shire Council received over 2,100 submissions during the public exhibition period for the 2013 Draft Local Environment Plan (LEP).

Sixty-two submissions were received concerning the Scout Land. Fifty-four submissions opposed the proposed zoning to RE2 Private Recreation. The “submissions report” of Sutherland Shire Council recommends that the Scout Land be zoned E2 Environmental Conservation. This is the highest level of environmental protection zoning available to private land. E1 zoning is reserved for national parks.

Your submissions have made the difference and have lead to this incremental victory on the road to seeing this bushland and wetland conserved! Thank you! The journey is not complete however and we have more work to do.

The council report also recommends that the current permissible use for the land as “recreation camp” be retained and that “eco-tourist accommodation” be added as a permissible use.

The report on the Scout Land, Bundeena can be read here:
59_Scout_Land_Bundeena.pdf

For more information about E2 zoning refer to:

SSC E2 Environmental Conservation
NSW Dept Planning Environmental Conservation Zones

Lobbying All Councillors to Accept the Recommendation

The recommendations from the council’s public submissions report will be voted on by our Councillors at a special council meeting tomorrow evening – 6:30pm Monday 29 July. The councillors may accept or reject all or some of the report’s recommendations. We need you to inform our councillors that the community supports the recommendation to zone the Scout Land E2.

Various councillors have advised us that we must lobby ALL councillors as each councillor’s vote will count in determining whether the recommendation gets up or not.

Please contact all our councillors tonight or tomorrow morning. Simply email them or give them a call. This is the perfect time to demonstrate a swell of community support to our Councillors just prior to them going into tomorrow night’s meeting. Councillors are being lobbied heavily over the LEP and they are expecting to receive hundreds of emails and calls so we are asking that you keep your message simple to cut through. We suggest writing or saying on the phone,

Dear Councillor,

I support the council’s public submissions report’s recommendation to zone the Scout Land, Bundeena to E2 Environmental Conservation.

The contact details for all councillors are at the very end of this email.

If you call a councillor and get their voice-mail, simply leave the above message stating your name and a return phone number.

Application to Close Bournemouth St and Sussex St Paper Roads

Council has received an application to close the Bournemouth St and Sussex St paper reserves that adjoin the Scout Land property. The owner of the Scout Land has communicated a desire to purchase this bushland (which also adjoins the Royal National Park) and to create fire breaks on this bushland.

The Spring Gully Protection Group’s aim is that all the bushland in Spring Gully should remain in its current undisturbed state and that the forest and wetland should remain intact and undisturbed. We will be following up shortly about this as this will be the next pressing issue that will be before council that we will need to lobby over.

LEP Re-Exhibition and Public Submission

Should council adopt the recommendations in the public submissions report, the LEP will be re-exhibited. Re-exhibition needs approval from the Department of Planning (in what is termed a “gateway determination”). The public submissions period may be as short as two weeks. We will need to evaluate the draft LEP that is re-exhibited and we will be making comment and recommendations to the community and encouraging all our friends to make responses at that time. Stay tuned!

Conclusion

As you have been reading over recent emails, things are moving swiftly and we are making solid progress in conserving Spring Gully thanks to your efforts and your support. Please contact our councillors now! The council is expecting a large attendance by the public at Monday night’s meeting (29 July). Many of us will be attending. Please come along and show your support. The doors open to the public at 6:15pm.

COUNCILLOR CONTACT DETAILS FOLLOW BELOW.

Once again thank you for your support. We will be in touch again soon.

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