Impression of a 20-apartment shop-top housing development with four affordable housing units at 82 Princes Highway, Narooma. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council.
Eurobodalla Shire Councillors rigorously debated a shop-top development in Narooma with affordable housing before passing it this week.
Because the 20-apartment development includes four affordable units, the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) allows a 30 per cent increase above Eurobodalla’s Local Environmental Plan (LEP) height limit of 11.5 metres.
A communal open space with a pergola on the four-storey building’s roof takes the height from the 14.95 metres allowed under the SEPP to 18.45 metres.
At the council meeting on 25 August, Deputy Mayor Anthony Mayne asked what precedent the over-height development would set for Narooma and Councillor Mick Johnson said the proposal was asking for a “massive” variation. He said some proposals with very small variations had been held up for three or four years.
Cr Phil Constable asked how the development could go ahead with no landscaping, which represented a 100 per cent variation from the planning regulations.
As a commercial site, there is no set back to the boundaries, leaving minimal room for landscaping. The development features an open space communal area on the roof. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council.
The proposed development is at 82 Princes Highway, near the intersection of McMilland Road and Bluewater Drive. A petrol station used to be there and the land is zoned commercial (local centre).
Council’s director of planning and environment Gary Bruce said the absence of landscaping was reasonable given the land’s commercial zoning and its proximity to public open spaces.
As for the building’s height, he said the communal open space on the roof top was needed because there was no room on the ground level and it gave residents a great view. As an open space in the centre of the roof, it did not impact on neighbouring properties’ privacy nor cause over-shadowing.
“You would have to be on a much higher building to see it and it is providing amenity to residents,” Mr Bruce said.
Cr Rob Pollock said council would be scrambling to catch up with the demand for housing if it waited for the master plans for Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma to be approved.
“Do we spend the next few years trying to catch up with the curve or support things that are ahead of the curve?” Cr Pollock asked.
He said no one knows what the master plans will look like except that they will be very different to what is currently permissible.
“We have to be flexible and have some vision,” he said. “When we have some ground-breaking proposals, we should look at them with an open mind.”
The motion was passed. Cr Johnson voted against it.
Panellists at a community Q&A on the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital in Narooma in April 2024 included Brad Scotcher of Southern NSW Local Health District, Dr Stuart Stapleton, Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland and Eurobodalla shire mayor Mat Hatcher. Photo: Marion Williams.
Also on the meeting’s agenda was a Mayoral Report concerning the proposed closure of the emergency department in Batemans Bay Hospital when the new Eurobodalla Regional Hospital opens.
While the $330 million Level 4 regional hospital will be larger than both Moruya and Batemans Bay hospitals combined, it will be located south of Moruya, some 20 minutes from Batemans Bay.
During the public forum Allan Bright, treasurer of the Don’t Close the Batemans Bay Emergency Department community group, said the department should be kept open given the population growth in the Batemans Bay area and its ageing population, and because the proposed Moruya bypass would not be built any time soon.
He noted a petition of 18,000 signatures supporting the ongoing operation of the emergency department had been debated in Parliament. He said its closure would make Batemans Bay the largest town in NSW without an emergency department and there were several examples in NSW of small emergency departments being near large hospitals.
Mr Bright said the Batemans Bay Medicare Urgent Care Clinic could not deal with things like poisonings and tightness in the chest.
Batemans Bay resident Patricia Hellier also spoke at the public forum in support of keeping the emergency department open and said the area’s aged-care facilities were putting extreme pressure on the ambulance service.
Mylene Boulting, co-founder of the ONE advocacy group that has long lobbied for a Level 4 hospital with an intensive care unit and local radiotherapy service, said the shire’s fragmented medical services were putting residents at a disadvantage and making it more difficult to attract staff. She asked what information council had received to cause it to reassess the closure of the Batemans Bay Emergency Department.
Mayor Mat Hatcher said the community was growing and, in the absence of a Moruya bypass, there was pressure on the roads and therefore access to medical services.
“Progress should not mean going backwards. Reductions in services hurt everyone. Our community’s health and future concerns me,” he said. “I am asking the State Government to look at the options to keep the emergency department open.”
The motion was passed unanimously.
