Concessional lot subdivisions

March 19, 2008: The Planning Minister Frank Sartor is in the final stages of preparing a new Rural Lands State Environmental Planning Policy that will abolish concessional lot entitlements in rural areas of the Bega Valley Shire

Bega Valley Shire Council’s general manager, Graeme Faulkner, said staff from the NSW Department of Planning had briefed Councillors and staff on Tuesday about aspects of the new SEPP.

"While the details of the SEPP are not known at this stage it appears that Council will be unable to accept any new development applications for concessional lot subdivisions from the date the SEPP comes into force," he said.

"The Planning Department officers said that date was ‘imminent’.

"Council has been aware for some time that the Department does not support concessional lot subdivisions because of the resulting fragmentation of good agricultural land and we have widely publicised that through the consultation as part of the Rural Lands Review."

Mr Faulkner said Council had been working on a transferable development potential scheme as a way of preserving the development potential of concessional lot subdivisions.

"However, it now appears that such a scheme will not be supported by the Department of Planning," he said.

"Therefore, rural landholders with existing concessional lot provisions which they have not taken up should make immediate application.

"It is a case of use it or lose it," Mr Faulkner said.