Draft Local Housing Strategy on Display

Published on 21 April 2023

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Murray River Council has endorsed the new draft Murray River Council Local Housing Strategy.

The draft document will now be on public display for a period of 28 days.

The two-part strategy, presented to Council at its ordinary meeting last week, outlines the key factors effecting housing supply and demand within Murray River Council and offers an implementation plan for land activation and housing delivery on a town-by-town basis over the next 20-years.

Mayor, Chris Bilkey said the draft Strategy highlights rapid growth throughout various areas of Murray River Council, particularly Moama.

“As a result of this growth, land and housing prices have risen, there has been an increase in demand and the existing land supply has diminished far quicker than experienced in previous economic cycles,” he said. 

“While this sharp growth rate is predicted to stabilise due to current economic factors, significant growth is nonetheless predicted to continue over the coming 20-year period.”

The development of the Housing Strategy was identified as a key action in council’s Local Strategic Planning Statement (LSPS), which sets the 20-year vision for land-use planning in Murray River Council.

Cr Bilkey said an initial round of consultation with the community last year sought feedback about the issues effecting local housing supply.

This was then collated with census data and stakeholder input to inform the development of the draft Strategy in consultation with the NSW Department Planning and Environment. 

“Now that we have the draft Strategy in-hand, we want the community to offer further feedback as it impacts many across our region and will become even more crucial as the Murray River Council area continues to grow,” Cr Bilkey said.

The Strategy details the capacity of existing zoned residential land to cater for future needs across each urban settlement area and any key constraints that may impact further development.

Overall, the Strategy identifies various residential land opportunities to cater for growth over the next twenty years in all Murray River Council settlements, and the proposed sequencing of the land to be rezoned. 

Director Planning and Environment, Rod Croft said that in the case of Moama, it is recommended that certain rural land be rezoned to immediately generate an additional range of lot sizes given the high demand for housing.

“This area of focus for future residential estates adds onto existing estates located to the north-west of the centre of Moama and can be efficiently provided with water and sewerage services,” Mr Croft said.

“It is also recommended that an area of land close to the town centre be zoned for medium density development, which will result in intensification opportunities for apartments, townhouses etc and an area to the north of the golf course be zoned for rural residential development.”

Elsewhere across the council, the Strategy recommends consideration of alternative housing types such as villas and townhouses to cater for the ageing population, enabling residents to age-in-place within their community.

This also featured as community suggestion when Council was developing the 2022-2032 Community Strategic Plan.

In many of the smaller townships the strategy also recommends activating already zoned but vacant residential land estates, that might have had approval for a subdivision for some time.

“The problem that Council faces with vacant residential land estates is the justification for rezoning new residential land is not as strong. This is because the vacant land is considered as a supply of residential land, even though the owner may have no intention of developing the land any further,” Mr Croft said.

Mr Croft said issues raised in the document around activation of land banked developments, and other tools at Council’s disposal, will also need to be considered carefully in each township.

“This is about setting triggers for residential land release based on agreed thresholds to ensure that we are monitoring and releasing a steady supply of land each year to strategically cater for our expected growth.”

Community members interested in viewing council’s draft Local Housing Strategy and providing feedback can do so via Council’s Your Say site: yoursay.murrayriver.nsw.gov.au

Consultation closes Tuesday 16 May.

 

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