The QPR Blog

There has been discussion recently in relation to the proposal to rezone parts of our rural residential areas. For residents who have moved into one of these areas since 2014, and even for some who have been there longer, this may all seem more than a little confusing. Without wanting to inflame any political debate, I thought it might be useful to at least provide a little background to the use of the NSW Standard Instrument (SI) template in the preparation of the Palerang Local Environment Plan (PLEP).

The SI template was introduced in 2006, as part of a NSW planning system reform, in an effort to standardise the structure of Local Environmental Plans (LEPs) across the state. The preparation of the SI took advantage of progress in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to move to a more consistent and comprehensive planning system with a heavy reliance on the mapping of planning controls and landscape features rather than simply descriptive text. The task for all NSW councils at the time was to migrate existing LEPs to the new SI structure.

Land use zoning is just one part of an LEP. It helps to define the style of development to be promoted in a particular area—for example, residential, industrial, rural, environmental etc. The SI also breaks these general classifications down more specifically when defining individual zones, so that there are discrete residential land use zones, for example, for general (R1), low density (R2), medium density (R3), high density (R4) and large lot (R5) residential development. Similarly, the rural category includes individual zones to specifically promote broad acre farming (RU1), the general management of rural landscape (RU2), forestry (RU3), ‘small lot’ primary production (RU4) and rural village (RU5) development, and the environmental category includes a specific zone for National Parks (E1) and individual zones that promote environmental conservation (E2), environmental management (E3) or environmental living (E4).

The preparation of the PLEP was largely a translation exercise, involving the LEPs of the six areas that were combined in the amalgamation that gave rise to the former Palerang LGA. Where land use zones were concerned, this involved changing zone names from those used in the existing LEPs to appropriate alternatives from the list provided in the SI template. While there was initially some consideration given to dividing the rural areas of Palerang into new zones that reflected the primary use of the land, be it primary production, low intensity agriculture (e.g. livestock grazing) or environmental management, this was ultimately abandoned and the Yarrowlumla LEP (YLEP) land use zones outside of the towns were simply mapped onto what was deemed to be the most appropriate SI alternative.

In the case of the former YLEP 1(d) Rural Residential zone that covered most of our rural residential areas, there were originally three potential alternatives available under the Standard Instrument—E4 (Environmental Living), RU4 (Primary Production Small Lots) and R5 (Large Lot Residential). The SI template does not include a Rural Residential zone as such, preferring to use one of these three zones to identify the underlying character of development to be promoted in such areas.

While there was some discussion in relation to which SI zone would be the most appropriate replacement for the YLEP 1(d) zone, the E4 zone was selected on the basis of the correlation between the objectives of the YLEP 1(d) zone, which included:

• to ensure that development is compatible with the environmental capabilities of the land and to encourage the conservation and enhancement of natural resources by means of appropriate land management techniques
• to assist in meeting the demand for rural residential development where it is consistent with the conservation of rural, agricultural, heritage and natural landscape qualities

and the Departmental recommendation that, where the environmental capabilities of the land were a more relevant consideration than the accommodation of urban residential expansion (R5) or the promotion of primary industries (RU4), preference should be given to the E4 zone.

In the event, this zoning has now been in place for seven years without any notable impact on land use practices or general amenity in our rural residential areas. Most residents will not even be aware that any change occurred. Development consent is required, at one level or another, for most permitted land uses, as it is in all land use zones, but this is exactly as it was under the former YLEP 1(d) zone and this seamless migration was precisely the objective of the zone translation process.