A problem with zoning was discussed as part of a recent councillor catch-up in Central Tilba . Photo: Whale Coast Realty.
Property owners in the Tilba area have found their plans to build a second dwelling on their acreage held up by a bureaucratic glitch that is taking Eurobodalla Shire Council a long time to fix.
When NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) completed a $40 million upgrade of the Princes Highway in 2012, it rezoned a section of the couple’s property so that it could use the land for a depot and equipment and materials storage.
The couple told councillors Mick Johnson and Colleen Turner about the saga at a councillor catch-up in Central Tilba recently.
They said that RMS was permitted to rezone the land for up to 10 years in case it needed to return to do remediation work.
“RMS gave it back in 2018 and the previous owner has been trying to change it back to RU1 Primary Production ever since, so we want you to move matters along,” they said.
The couple was unaware of the different rezoning when they bought the property.
It only came to their attention after they tried to submit a development application (DA) to build an additional dwelling on their property.
“It was the RFS guy who picked it up, not the draftsman who prepared the DA or the solicitor,” they said. “We have been told the DA would be fine but we can’t lodge it because of that zoning.”
The couple eventually found the previous owner’s paperwork with the council which dates back to 2019.
They said that in December 2023 someone from council said they would do something and wrote to the previous owner saying that the process would start in January 2024.
“We bought it a year later and didn’t realise any of this so nothing has been done,” they said. “It is the system. It has been overlooked or it is too hard.”
They said they were told it would take 12 months to return the section of land to its original RU1 zoning and that the process involved changing the council’s Local Environmental Plan (LEP).
Previous paperwork from the council said there were around 90 similar rezoning issues to be resolved.
The property owners said that when the work was done on the highway, RMS brought sand in from Candelo and it was full of love grass. That is another issue they are battling. “It is like a tussock and nothing will eat it,” they said. Council’s invasive species team is aware of the issue.
Another Tilba resident was critical of council’s communication to the general public and to its contractors.
She cited the new Umbarra corten signs that have been progressively installed across the shire’s towns and villages, including Narooma in June.
“There was a lack of communication and it caused a lot of fighting on Narooma Facebook,” she said. “Some people were very much for the new sign and others saying leave the old one there.”
She wanted to know where the old one was and asked if it could be repurposed given the signs had cost $11,000 a few years ago.
“Why weren’t we informed better. It caused all this angst,” she said.
“The letter back from council said they kept the Chambers of Commerce informed but locals didn’t know,” she said. “We used to have local newspapers and council had their own page and you would see their job ads and DAs that had been approved.”
She also gave the example of recent mulching done by contractors for council. “They did an appallingly bad job. They left stumps and logs and the wattles are coming in.”
She said council should have communicated better what they wanted the contractors to do.
Another Tilba resident pointed out various remediation work needed around Bate Street in Central Tilba. One was a timber retaining wall on a property next to the Dromedary Hotel which was not properly bolted on when it was installed.
Also, a convex traffic mirror at the corner of Bate Street and Corkhill Drive had been removed and not replaced, making it difficult for drivers coming out of Bate Street to see traffic coming from Tilba Tilba.
He also pointed to the falling post and rail timber fencing in the carparks at either end of the village. “If someone drives too far, they will go down the gully.”
Cr Turner urged him to report the matters to council via Snap Send Solve.
