Planning and Development in Bundanoon

The Bundanoon Community Association has a position that it supports appropriate development that retains the character of Bundanoon.

We have provided this page to help residents better understand the many pieces of the development jigsaw.

Once a development application has been approved, there is little opportunity to change the development unless the developer breaches the conditions of consent.

The only effective opportunity is when the development application is placed on public exhibition.

Council

Wingecarribee Shire Council is the consent authority for development in Bundanoon. Development must meet conditions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. This includes meeting the conditions of the Local Environment Plan (LEP) which is the zoning of the particular location; in Bundanoon the main zonings are R2 (low density), R3 (medium density) and B2 (commercial).

Bundanoon has a Development Control Plan (DCP) which provides appropriate development guidelines to retain the character of the village.

Complying with the LEP is legislated, however the DCP is not legally enforceable.

Council often finds itself in between the wishes of developers and the community.

Resources

See developments near you. The Planning Alerts Portal will send an alert when it receives notification of developments with a 2km radius of a point. This is a not-for-profit organisation and not a government service. It generally sends the alerts as soon as the Development Application is lodged. At this point, most of the information is not yet on the Council website so you will need to check back in a few days. You need to register your email address and your address of interest at https://www.planningalerts.org.au/

Council’s development tracking. Council recently replaced the DA Tracker tool so there are two places within the Council website to look up developments. DA Tracker has developments lodged up to 25 March 2021 and the new tool E-Track has developments lodged after that.

DA Tracker (pre 25/3/2021) https://datracker.wsc.nsw.gov.au/Modules/ApplicationMaster/Default.aspx

E-Track (post 25/3/2021)  https://eservices.wsc.nsw.gov.au/T1PRProd/WebApps/eProperty/P1/eTrack/eTrackApplicationSearch.aspx?r=WSC.WEBGUEST&f=%24P1.ETR.SEARCH.ENQ

 The Local Environment Plan – this sets out the zoning for land use and development. There is some navigation required to get to the Bundanoon Plans and they are in downloadable PDF format https://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/Development/Local-Environmental-Plan

  The Development Control Plan – this is a long document with a lot of detail about the character of development. The link is for a PDF download https://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/development/dcps/2021/bundanoon-dcp.pdf

 Land parcel resources

It is possible to find a lot of information about land parcels through the NSW Spatial Information eXchange (known as SiX Maps) and the Spatial Portal.

The Cadastral layer shows the deposited plans and approved subdivisions for any part of NSW. A cadastre is the term for a map layer showing boundaries of land parcels There is a small learning curve to use SiX Maps – use the Question Mark icon on the main screen for help. It is very valuable to explore what is already subdivided – whether simply approved or actually developed. SiX Maps is found at https://maps.six.nsw.gov.au/

Responding to Development Applications

All development applications are placed on public exhibition, and anyone can make a submission supporting the development, opposing the development or seeking changes to the development.

Generally, responses will simply be placed into two piles – for and against – no matter how much effort has been put into the letters.

Council will be assessing against the Local Environment Plan and not against the eloquence or emotion of the letters.

Although this document is not telling anyone how to respond, in general, long and emotive responses do not affect the process. It is non-compliance with the LEP and to a lesser degree, not in the spirit of the DCP that will more greatly affect the determination of the Development Application.

Council officers will assess the Development Application on this basis and points raised by submissions will assist them in their recommendation to the Local Planning Panel. This panel of outside experts and community representatives now determines DAs, not the Councillors.

If there are a large number of objections this will also influence Council but may not change the approval. If Council goes against the LEP, the Developer has the ability to appeal to the Land and Environment Court. For this reason, Council is reluctant to reject DAs that obey all the rules.

BCA’s Planning and Development Subcommittee

The BCA has a Planning and Development subcommittee that considers significant developments in Bundanoon and may provide a submission on a development application in consultation with the community. To contact the Planning Subcommittee please email Planning@bca.asn.au