Aerial image of site for the proposed seniors housing development on Nutleys Creek Road, Bermagui. Photo: Bega Valley Shire Council website.
The NSW Southern Regional Planning Panel has unanimously refused an application to build a seniors land lease development on Nutleys Creek Road in Bermagui.
The original development application (DA) lodged with Bega Valley Shire Council in November 2023 proposed a 162-dwelling development. The DA was subsequently amended to 120 manufactured dwellings. It was described as a seniors living lifestyle resort development and would have removed 13.4 hectares of native vegetation.
The $26.5 million proposed gated development led a group of residents to form Bermagui Matters in February 2024.
The DA attracted 298 unique objections.
Council had recommended that the panel refuse the DA. A public determination meeting was held on 7 April at which members of the community, stakeholders and representatives of the developer Metacap Group Holdings addressed the panel.
As a result of that meeting, the panel asked the applicant to supply more information to council and for council to further assess the DA. Council lodged its addendum assessment report on 9 June. The panel met again on 16 June and on 24 June (Wednesday) published its determination and the reasons for its refusal.
The panel concluded that the site on the south-western edge of Bermagui was not suitable for the development. It placed significant weight on the social implications of locating a seniors housing development in an identified bushfire risk zone, about 2.5 kilometres south-west from Bermagui’s town centre.
Bermagui residents have raised the issue of the development with NSW Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland. Photo: Marion Williams.
“There would be limited public transport and infrastructure, such as footpaths for residents to walk, and limited services and social integration with the broader community,” the panel’s determination said. It said while the proposal was permissible within the R2 Low Density Residential zone, the panel did not believe that adequate access to community, social and health services could be provided to vulnerable residents.
The panel did not think the proposed evacuation plan provided sufficient contingency measures to ensure safe evacuation of immobile, frail and vulnerable residents. The applicant proposed the site could be evacuated in 85 minutes.
The determination said the manufactured housing development offered limited diversity of housing stock, was marketed to a narrow seniors demographic and it had not been proved that it was “genuinely affordable”.
Both the panel and council viewed the extent of cut and fill and the resultant size and prevalence of retaining walls as unacceptable from an environmental and urban design perspective.
The panel said while it was acutely aware of the need for additional housing, “it is important that new housing, and in particular seniors housing, is appropriately located, accessible, and genuinely affordable, and supported by adequate health, medical and community infrastructure”.
The panel said the proposal was not in the public interest.
The DA received broad community resistance. In addition to Bermagui Matters, Bermagui Community Forum opposed it. Traditional owners and members of the Merrimans Local Aboriginal Land Council walked through the site with a team of archaeologists and submitted a report to the council while the Far South Coast Koala Action Network conducted a koala survey in Bermagui in May 2024. Residents raised the issue with Member for Bega Dr Michael Holland when he visited Bermagui in December 2024 and in August 2025.
In its determination the panel said the DA was inconsistent with elements of NSW Government legislation and council’s planning documents.
For example, it did not comply with council’s policy that housing should be designed to reflect and enhance the locality, it would have a detrimental impact on the environmental values of the site, and the proposed scale and density were not consistent with the character of the site or locality.
The panel said council had reviewed the submissions received, including 295 unique objections, and determined that the scale and density of the development was not in the public interest. Nor were the modifications to the existing landscape and reliance on mitigation measures to address the risks and environmental impacts associated with the site, location and proposed land use.
A proposal for a 200-dwelling manufactured housing estate for over-50s in Narooma is headed to the NSW Land and Environment Court.
A spokesperson for Bermagui Matters said “this is a win for the community, the environment, and the call for sensible development in the right locations”.
“For more than two years our diverse group of residents has been working hard to address their many different concerns on why this isn’t suitable for a place like Bermagui.”
