Council adopts plans for 2000 new houses in Bega, 1000 in Wolumla

Plans are afoot to allow for about 2000 new homes to be built in Bega as well as 1000 new homes in Wolumla to combat future housing issues.

Last week, Bega Valley Shire councillors agreed to adopt structure plans for the Bega and Wolumla residential growth areas.

“The structure plans provide the groundwork for a significant portion of future housing in the shire,” Council’s director of community, environment and planning Emily Harrison said.

“We estimate we need around 2500 new homes over the next 15 years, and accelerating supply in Bega and Wolumla will help to meet some of that demand plus demand further into the future.”

She said several changes were made to the draft plans following public exhibition, which had resulted in 533 online surveys and 21 written submissions.

“Feedback on the structure plans indicated strong support for more housing supply and the allocation of more land to housing in the shire,” Ms Harrison said.

“There is support for a variety of housing types in new developments including units and townhouses, not just detached dwellings, which is critical to meeting the housing needs of our community.”

The draft plan for Bega says its development would deliver around 2113 dwellings over an anticipated timeframe of 25 years.

It identifies three precincts suitable for residential, commercial, retail and open space requirements, which are all south of the current town area. These precincts are to the west between the Bega River and the Princes Highway, directly south of the town on Newtown Road, as well as to the east between the Princes Highway and Tathra Road.

The plan also proposes retail centres off Newtown and Tathra roads.

“The feedback shows that community priorities for new neighbourhoods in Bega are protecting natural features, amenity and character; efficient use of land and infrastructure; and sustainable development to manage growth,” Ms Harrison said.

More than 70 per cent of respondents wanted to see more land allocated to housing.

The plan does say the precincts to the west and east are largely owned privately, but the central precinct has some government-owned land “indicating there is an opportunity to develop the type of built form outcomes sought in this location independent of the timeframes of privately-owned developments”.

“This structure plan process has confirmed that this site and the Wolumla site have the potential to meet the housing needs of the shire for the next few decades,” the plan says.

The draft plan for Wolumla investigates how the existing vacant urban release areas can be developed to accommodate around 1000 new homes and how these areas can be integrated with the existing village.

“Community priorities for Wolumla’s growth include the need to renew Candelo-Wolumla Road; protecting village character; efficient use of service infrastructure and provision of active travel and open space networks,” Ms Harrison said.

“The feedback also identified that future growth in Wolumla needs to address the current lack of footpaths to open space areas and the town centre; the limited services and shopping available; poor pedestrian connectivity to the recreational space east of the highway; the limited recreation/open space within the town; and safety concerns with the existing highway intersections.”

The draft plan for Wolumla says its development would deliver about 1096 dwellings over about 25 years.

The proposed development area is from the north to the south on the west side of the current town and includes a retail centre near the intersection of Scott and Bega streets.

“There are three landowners for those areas of the structure plan set aside for residential development, with the landowner of the southern parcel, south of Scott Street seeking to develop their site in the short term,” the plan says.

Council said the NSW Government had agreed to fund a planning proposal to rezone land identified in the Bega Structure Plan, which would allow Council to prepare a rezoning application in the next 12 months.

To view the draft structure plans, visit Council’s website by clicking here.