Project update: Fingal building heights review

Fingal height of building review update – April 2017

Following on from our first community consultation with Fingal Heads residents in March 2016, Council’s Strategic Planning Staff been progressing the Fingal Heads Height of Building Review by undertaking the following stages of the project:

Development of a Project Plan – Council has initiated a project and communications plan and has developed a project plan methodology. A diagram of the project plan with an indicative timeframe has been uploaded to the yoursaytweed.com.au/fingal-building-heights.

Comprehensive Development Application Review – As part of the project plan, Council staff has undertaken a comprehensive review of all development applications within Fingal Head over the last 15 years. The objective of this review was to understand the nature of development which is generally being sought as well as an understanding of development compliance with the existing suite of development controls.

Community Conversation 01 – March 2016 – A Council hosted afternoon at the Fingal Public School hall which was attended by approximately 80 local residents who generously contributed to informal discussions about planning and design matters within Fingal Head.

Conversation with the Fingal Aboriginal Community – Council followed up on an invitation to have an informal conservation with the local Fingal Head Aboriginal to discuss a wide range of cultural, environmental, planning and design issues.

Preparation and distribution of the Fingal Head Building heights Survey – The survey was distributed to local Fingal Head Residents and had over 120 responses.

Preparation of a survey review report – The survey review reports documents all the feedback which Council received during the survey consultation process. This included returned surveys as well as a number of formal correspondences. The survey review report was uploaded onto the Your sayTweed website for general download and review in April 2017.

Commencement of an Issues and Options Matrix – Following on from the survey review report, a number of clear design and planning issues and thematics emerged along with a diversity and at times divergence of opinion relating to each of those issues and thematics. In order to provide a clear understanding of these issues and options which Council would like to investigate with the community a simple thematic/issue matrix is being developed. A draft of the matrix will be uploaded to the Yoursaytweed website when a draft is complete.

Preparation for Community Conversation 02 – planning has commenced for the next community conversation which is being scheduled for May 2017 at the Fingal Public Hall. The intent of the next community conversation will be three fold:

· Present back the outcomes of the building height survey

· Present the Issue / Thematic Matrix

· Workshop the various options within small resident groups.

Next Steps:

Look out for a Tweed link advertisement and a group email (to those who previously supplied email addresses) with details of the next community conservation scheduled for May 2017.

In the meantime if you have any comments on any of the information uploaded please give Council a call to discuss on Ph:(02) 6670 2693 or send an email to PlanningReforms@tweed.nsw.gov.au.