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Lithgow Landuse Strategy

 

It is advised that  Lithgow City Council at its Ordinary Meeting of 31st October, 2011 gave consideration to the exhibited Draft Lithgow Land Use Strategy 2010-2030.

The document has been amended in accordance with Council’s resolutions (Minute No’s 11-422 and 11-450).

This final document has now been forwarded to the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure Western Region Office for endorsement.

More detailed information can be found on Lithgow City Council’s website by following this link.

 

 

In late June 2012 the Lithgow City Council sent out a courtesy letter to all interested parties notifying each that the Lithgow Land Use  Strategy 2010-2030 adopted by Council in October 2011 has now been formally endorsed by the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure.

This endorsement paves the way for the next step in the planning process which is the preparation of the Principal Local Environmental Plan (LEP).

Once a Draft LEP is prepared, the community will be given a further opportunity to provide comment.

All the submissions forwarded to Council about the Draft Land Use Strategy have been published!  and are available to be read by all here:

http://www.lithgow.nsw.gov.au/landuse/submissions.html

They are big files to download but very worthwhile reading.

Lithgow City Council is required to develop a comprehensive Local Environmental Plan (LEP). The first stage of this process is the development of a Land Use Strategy which sets the directions for the LEP. The Draft Land Use Strategy, now available for comment, identifies issues relating to land use planning affecting the Lithgow Local Government Area, provides analysis of the current situation and the predicted future scenario, and provides a series of recommendations to address the major issues identified.

The major areas discussed in the strategy are:

• Population makeup and trends

• Infrastructure

• Environmental protection including water, soil, vegetation, forests and national parks

• Heritage

•  Rural land use

• Residential land use

  1. •Industrial, commercial, tourism lands
  2. •Open space and recreation.

 

This document is significant to Council and the community because it will set directions to determine how land should be developed over the next twenty years.

The decisions that Council must make in relation to future land use planning are amongst the most important made by Council.  It is for this reason that Council is encouraging community and government agency participation in the development of the final land use strategy.

The documents are available to view or download from the Lithgow City Council Website at: http://www.lithgow.nsw.gov.au/landuse/documents.html

and are also available to be viewed in printed text form at Lithgow Library in Main St, Council Offices in Mort St, Wallerawang and Portland Libraries until 31st July when the date for submissions by the public closes. A CD-ROM of the full document is also available through Council for $5-50.

There has been much discussion and debate about the draft LUS within the  wider community and articles and letters  published in the Lithgow Mercury.

Several groups of concerned citizens have met over the past few months – Even 15 months ago, there was enough concern about the possible changes to the organisation of the greater Lithgow community that the Hartley Forum was instituted and workshops run to determine what the community wants its future directions to take. A  document was drawn up and published, and submitted to Council earlier this year. Further information about this process is available here – http://www.hartleyforum.org/

Council has not seen fit to incorporate the recommendations forwarded by that group into this Draft Land Use Strategy.

 

With overwhelming complexity and volume of documents to wade through and little time to come to grips with so much information, and much to be read between the lines and with little assistance from Council on the  matter, a meeting was organised and held at the Community Hall in Hartley on 19th June.

Fifty eight people came to discuss the issues and were given excellent advice by two very experienced town planners, Mr Angus Witherby and Mr Jim Colman.

From that meeting seven Resolutions were unanimously forwarded and accepted by the meeting, and these Resolutions were subsequently sent to the Mayor and several councillors as submissions from all those present at the meeting.

 

The Resolutions made by that special community meeting on 19th June can be found further down this page and are also on the Hartley Facebook Page.

There have been subsequent meetings across the region by several concerned groups of individuals and communities but time for debate and submitting comments to Council is running short.

 

Resolutions passed unanimously at a Public Meeting held at Hartley School Hall Sunday 19th June to consider the Lithgow Draft Land Use Strategy

 

1  Extension of time   That the draft Lithgow land use strategy remain on exhibition for a minimum of a further four months to give members of the community time to understand, consider and discuss important policy changes, and to enable the community to consider alternative ideas and proposals.

2  Community involvement  That Lithgow Council be requested to organise a comprehensive program of information sessions and public meetings conducted by an independent facilitator to enable discussion of the draft strategy and to help the community to express ideas and priorities for the future.

3  Further drafts of LUS  That the Council  be requested to publish a succinct and clearly expressed further draft – professionally edited – containing new ideas and alternatives that will flow from the  requested community involvement process.

4  Opposition to R5 zone in the Hartley Valley   That this meeting strongly opposes the proposal to rezone the 1c zone to large lot residential and that council should encourage diverse, sustainable, self-sufficient activities and enterprises/ individuals undertaking such activities should be encouraged.

5  Objection to the removal of existing dwelling entitlements from vacant rural lots.  That this meeting objects to the unwarranted proposal to increase to 400 ha the minimum area for a rural dwelling on the grounds that existing rural lots of all sizes can have many productive and sustainable uses.

6  Tracking comments and suggestions. That council be asked to provide transparency such that residents comments on Draft LUS can be  promptly viewed by electronic and other means together with councils detailed response to each issue.

7  Supporting studies and reports. That council release for public review by electronic and other means all studies and research that drives the various actions and proposals incorporated in the Draft LUS.

 

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