Community concerns over the recent influx of dual occupancy developments has led to a report from council calling for increased lot sizes across the municipality.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Members of the Jamberoo community are worried dual occupancy lots are leading to undesired population densities in some new residential areas.
Presently, dual occupancies are permissible in all residential zones under the provisions of the 2011 Kiama LEP 2011.
Deputy Mayor Kathy Rice requested the report at a council meeting in July, to discuss an amendment to the Kiama LEP in order for it to best support new developments on new greenfield releases.
“The Jamberoo community has brought up in discussion over the DCP, their desire to regulate the dual occupancies that are occurring in developments such as Chapel Hill and Wyalla Road,” Ms Rice said.
“They do not want to see anymore of that and it was a very big reason for them coming out in force against Golden Valley Road.
“These sizes that are being recommended for Jamberoo would be a minimum lot size for dual occupancy of 1200 square metres, that would mean that would be divided so each site would be 600 square metres, which is smaller than the approved minimum lot size in Jamberoo of 800 square metres.”
The report has called for the establishment of a minimum lot size of 600 square metres in Kiama, Gerringong and Gerroa and a minimum lot size of 1200 square metres for certain newly zoned residential land in Jamberoo.
Councillor Matt Brown spoke against the proposed amendment to the Kiama LEP.
“I cannot believe what I am hearing – that our Greens councillors want bigger homes and bigger lot sizes in our area and more expensive homes for people,” he said.
“If these amendments do through, we are ensuring mini McMansions that are dual occupancies. They’re all over the place, they’re going to cost a lot more, going to use a lot more energy and they’re not going to create a village feel.”
Cr Brown said it was not a good decision for the community or the environment.
“The Greens moved and worked very hard at the last LEP to create urban consolidation, now they’re moving further away from that,” he said.
“Why don’t we assess sensible applications when they come, that meet the desire the feel that we want, rather than crazy numbers where architects and developers will try and squeeze as much onto the lot as they possibly can because we’ve set them a rule.”
Related stories:
The Jamberoo Valley Ratepayers and Residents Association (JVRRA)
The JVRRA is being assisted by several experts in preparing its DCP related information and advice to the community.
“They will also be assisting the JVRRA to prepare a submission to council for you to use in the preparation of written submissions to Council,” a JVRRA spokesperson said.
“In addition, the JVRRA will also be preparing its own community DCP survey, separate to council’s, and will be providing it to everyone in the Jamberoo Valley community and to JVRRA members.”
The JVRRA is encouraging the community takes the time to complete and return the survey in the next week.
“What’s needed from the Jamberoo village and valley community is really quite simple,” the spokesperson said.
“We need to tell the town planners at the workshops the factors we like and don’t like in the natural and physical layout and makeup of our village, its surroundings and the built environment.
“We need to be able to describe and specify things like how much we want buildings to be set back from the streets, how much space we want around houses, if we want view corridors between the houses and buildings to preserve and even increase visibility to our attractive surrounding rural landscapes when viewed from within the built environment.”
Community DCP Workshops at Jamberoo School of Arts
- Tuesday, August 29 at 1pm and 7pm.
- Tuesday, September 5 at 1pm.
- Thursday, September 7 at 7pm.
