Snowy Monaro Regional Council invited comment on the Draft Rural Land Use Strategy from the community of the Snowy Monaro Region. Submissions closed on 1 February 2021. This is your chance to voice concerns, fears, approval or disapproval at the impacts these proposed amendments will make to your farming and landholding rights.
This page will continue provide our research, to assist landholders and farmers to understand the potential impacts of the proposed strategy. It was created and is run by concerned landholders in the LGA, who want to help other landholders facing the same problems with constant legislative and developmental changes.
Updates will be provided through our Facebook page, Snowy Monaro Region Farmers and Landholders Group, and on this web site.
Most rural land is affected by the proposal; by either re-zoning or changes to minimum lot sizing;
Council are proposing, generally, an increase in minimum lot sizes (to 250 are 400 hectares), removing some landholders rights to build new dwellings on their vacant land if under this size;
Allowable activities (clearing for fence lines, tracks, firewood, construction timber, rural infrastructure) for native vegetation under the Local Land Services (LLS) Act 2013 are no longer accessible for landholders with the proposed E-zoning. The Land Management (Native Vegetation) Code 2018 is also no longer accessible to those same landholders;
New dual occupancy's, home industries or businesses and road-side stalls will not be allowed in the E-Zones;
There are significant constraints on exempt and complying development via the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 applied to E-Zones - example:
If you want to keep fowl it requires a DA;
farm buildings and holding yards are not an exempt development meaning they also require a DA;
Cubby houses, garden sheds and greenhouses all have the allowable size reduced to 20m2;
The State Environmental Planning Policy (Primary Production and Rural Development) 2019 does not apply in full to E-zoned landholdings. It also reduces development opportunities and allowable developments on land in close proximity to E-Zones - for example: temporary holding facilities after a bush fire are not permitted within 500 metres of an E-Zone;
Landholders will be required to request a Bush Fire Hazard Reduction Certificate, issued through our Rural (volunteer) Fire Service to manage their bush fire risks, as previous self-accessible Codes are no longer available. The 10/50 rule, under the Rural Fires Act 1997, will still apply. This Bush Fire Risk Management Plan for the Snowy Monaro can be found here;
The new 25 metre boundary clearing rule under the Bushfires Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 will not apply to E-zoned land;
Lot averaging provisions will only be applied to E4 and R5, which reduces development options for farming and aging families.
When speaking of farmers and landholders in the Upper House, The Hon. MATTHEW MASON-COX said on 19 November, 2020, when reflecting on legislation from 2016:
"As a member of a country area and someone who comes from a farming family background, I am steeped in farming practices. In my humble opinion, it was an area that was subject to much unnecessary conflict and regulation. At the heart of it was a mistrust of farmers as stewards of their land. Farmers understand the needs of not only their business but also the environment. Fundamental to that conflict is a misunderstanding of that stewardship. Sadly, I feel as if I am back in that time because this is what I would call a creeping regulation. This time it is administered through State environmental planning instruments via local governments with the endorsement of a State Government that does not fully understand the actual implementation of that very important structural change in 2016."