Community members contribute to Issues Paper

During early-stage consultation with the community in August and September 2022, the Growth Management and Housing Strategy page on Your Say Tweed received 900 visits.

Representatives from local resident and ratepayer groups, community groups, local urban planning consultants and interested residents from across the shire attended interactive Community Briefing Sessions to learn more about the project and share their views on how they would like to see the Tweed grow and what should be considered when planning for the future of housing and employment land.

Almost 300 people completed the online survey. 40% of survey respondents have lived in the Tweed more than 20 years, 39% between 10-20 years and the remainder moved to the Tweed in the last 10 years.

A sample of what we heard

• The natural environment, access to the coastline and rural landscapes are part of what makes the Tweed a great place to live.
• Local people value our open, green space and scenic views, our lifestyle and the convenience of living close to services and facilities.
• People want to see bushland, tree-lined streets and the Tweed's heritage, character and identity preserved. They also want to see improved transport infrastructure and service (roads, public transport, walkways and cycleways). Housing affordability is also highly valued.
• The majority of people who participated in the consultation indicated that they think population growth should be accommodated either as redevelopment within existing residential areas of the Tweed or a combination of existing and outside existing residential areas. Many accepted that this might mean that medium to higher density dwellings such as residential flat buildings and townhouses or smaller-sized suburban blocks with detached or semi-detached houses and smaller yard space may be needed to accommodate this growth.
• The vast majority of people felt that it was very important for the Tweed to have bushland/rural/urban breaks to separate our built-up urban areas and our rural towns.

Community feedback and contributions will help inform the development of an Issues Paper alongside input from the Project Reference Group, other stakeholder engagement and research. The draft Issues Paper will be placed on Public Exhibition for further comment before being finalised.