The working draft has been prepared by Palerang's professional planning staff, using the State Government template that contains many mandatory clauses.
Issues of Pecuniary Interest and Conflict of Interest have continued to dog the process.
Several speakers objected to the removal of a clause in the 'Objectives' of the RU1 Primary Production Zone, ensuring environmentally sustainable development.
At the end of the meeting an informal group of well rehearsed Bungendore residents addressed the Council on their concerns about the new LEP.
The first of the speakers outlined the group's concerns about "Resident's declining willingness to participate in the LEP process" and that "Residents development priorities are being ignored."
She questioned why "are people who recognize the importance of the LEP, and who have participated in the past, withdrawing from the current LEP planning process?"
The presentation put that the "resident's perception is that the elected Council fails to listen to residents and gives priority to developers, Councillor's self-interests override community interests in the planning decisions, and Council meetings are riven by conflict and factionalism that makes constructive engagement difficult."
A subsequent speaker said that "There is a strong resident's view that Bungendore is losing its rural townscape" and that "environmental considerations are not a high enough priority in the decision making process."
He added that "the rate of development exceeds the community's capacity to provide services and integrate the influx of new people. Elmslea estate and "old" Bungendore are more akin to parallel communities than a cohesive whole."
He continued with the residents' view that "We are not under a real and pressing social need to expand Bungendore's population in a radical manner".
The fourth speaker addressed the 'adequacy of the new LEP' saying it may fail to comply with State planning guidelines.
"Our concern is the revisions being made by Palerang Council do not comply with Section 117 of the Sydney- Canberra corridor strategy, nor with good practice in environmental planning.
"Advice from the Department of Planning is that if this is the case, Palerang's draft submission to the Department will be rejected. This would mean: wasted time and effort, and additional delays in implementing a new LEP."
"Our observation of recent meetings is that bullying, hectoring and self-interest dominate proceedings and is inhibiting contributions from both councillors and residents. Supporting this observation is advice from one State Department that what is occurring in the Palerang Council is well in excess of other Councils in southern NSW."
The group wrapped up their presentation saying, "With hindsight and current evidence available to us, we realise we should have actively requested the Minister for Planning to appoint an independent Planning Committee. We now plan to correct this by requesting the Minister to a) examine Councillor's pecuniary interest statements to ensure they are comprehensive and compliant with applicable legislation, and b) subject Palerang's LEP submission to detailed scrutiny to ensure the interests of residents are properly considered and environmental and rural land use provisions meet best practice."
Council has decided to hold the next Extraordinary Meeting to discuss the draft LEP in Braidwood on Thursday 25th March from10am - 4pm in the old library/ Council Meeting Room.
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