Arts and music are an important part of the social capital of this area.
Both of the current festivals on this property give opportunity to
local artists, visual, musical and performance. The economic benefits
are also well evident, not to mention the donations to local
organisations.

Benefit to the local community. Infrastructure, employment opportunities,
tourism & community spirt.

The Parklands is an incredible venue that the public is lucky enough to
have experienced through Splendour & Falls. It's so well set up in
regards to creating minimal impact on the environment and sets such a
wonderful tone for festival goers in regards to respect. Such a
beautiful part of the earth to share with the rest of the world - it
would be a shame to hide it away.

I am in full support of North Byron Parklands becoming a permanent
cultural events site as I believe it benefits the community in both a
financial and cultural way. I have been attending events there for
many years and have continually been impressed by the efficient way
the events have been run and how well the site has been treated in
terms of environmental considerations. People come from far and wide
to enjoy the events and indeed the whole Byron area.

I sat through days of community discussion voicing concerns about this
site for a festival before it began. The concerns were valid and
critical for the safety of the site, for the quality of life in the
community. However, they were given a trial period. Now they want to
bypass council and community input.Having the state of NSW control the
festival site is not consistent with the existing PAC-approved Concept
Plan. After the trial period is over, Byron Council is supposed to
grant any further approvals for holding festivals at the site. Rather
than prepare for this, Parklands got the state to extend their trial
period and applied to become a State Significant Development. These
moves have allowed them to avoid Council control. Permanent approval
is not in the best interests of the local community. It brings
increasing tourists to an area already unable to support the
infrastructure. Recurring issues include noise, traffic, impacts on
the environment, impacts on local infrastructure (roads, water, sewer
systems) and impacts on residential amenity and health. Fire risks
continue to be great, especially since the festivals have numerous
bonfires and are located in a fire-prone area. Problems have arisen
repeatedly throughout the trial, many unpredictable, e.g., the on-site
traffic nightmares at Splendour 2016, recurring outbreaks of "festival
flu", unpredictable noise disturbance throughout the area, and
repeated illegal use of fireworks on the site. Parklands may claim
that all the problems have been identified and will easily be
mitigated, The local community should have the right to evaluate the
efficacy of this festival. Control should revert to the Byron Shire
Council after the trial period.

NORTH BYRON PARKLANDS CULTURAL EVENTS SITE Application No: SSD 8169 and
MP 09_0028 MOD 3 (Concept Plan) Location: 126 Tweed Valley Way Yelgun.
I OBJECT on various grounds to approval being granted. 1/ The NSW
Planning and Environment Dept. sets out a guideline for State
Significant Precincts. It states proposals will be assessed against
this criteria to determine their significance to state or regional
planning objectives. This application does not meet the state
government's criteria. The criteria includes and states: * Be of
regional importance in achieving government policy objectives,
particularly those relating to increasing delivery of housing and
jobs. There is no relationship nor stimulus relating to this
application that will increase housing in our area. Aside from the
fact we do not have the infrastructure to accommodate further
significant housing development in the Byron Shire this festival site
is clearly more inclined to drive people away from the effects of the
increase of usage (i.e. music festivals), rather than attract new
residents. After 6 years of trial events being held at the Yelgun site
there has only been a negligible amount of permanent jobs that have
been created. There is no evidence of significant creation of
permanent employment. Most jobs offered now and logically in the
future are on a casual short-term employment basis and often work is
carried out for just a free ticket to attend the festival. * be of
state or regional importance for environmental or natural resource
conservation. This site and the main usage, namely large-scale music
festivals attracting up to 50,000 patrons per day, is contrary to this
guideline. Animals such as koalas, wallabies, goannas, echidnas and
abundant birdlife that have traditionally thrived have already been
severely affected and ultimately will either perish or be driven out
of this immediate area if further manifestation of this site is
granted. This site is designated as being part of a wildlife corridor
accessing the World Heritage listed Wollumbin National Park, formally
known as Mt. Warning National Park. * be of state or regional
importance for heritage or historical significance. The proponents
have strategically named their site `North Byron Parklands Cultural
Events Site' but as much as there may well be benign style cultural
events the prime usage is large scale music festivals that create
significant noise and attract massive crowds of predominately young
patrons looking to party. Good luck to those patrons, we can all
understand their attraction and enjoyment, but there is no
relationship between that usage and Heritage or Historical
significance. On the basis the application lodged is for this site to
be designated as a State Significant Development, how can the Planning
and Environment Dept. consider approving the application when it
doesn't meet the state governments own general criteria? 2/ The
existing PAC approved concept plan is supposed to allow the option of
Byron Shire Council rather than the state Planning Dept. to assess and
approve any applications after the trial period is over. If council
are unfairly bypassed the state government will take away the
opportunity for local communities to adjudicate and determine what is
best for them. It would illustrate the state government has little
consideration for the local ramifications which would be disrespectful
and undemocratic. Byron Council, in consultation with residents and
business owners should be determining their own shires destiny; not
the state government. 3/ Byron residents need to share their special
region of the North Coast with all visitors including music festival
patrons but there needs to be controls and a balance. With a shire
population of approx. 30,000 off a rate revenue base of approx. 15,000
ratepayers there is a point where we cannot adequately maintain local
facilities, infrastructure and amenity. Like it or not residents need
to accept there will likely be 2 major music festival each year;
namely the Splendour in the Grass festival around mid-year and Falls
during the New Year period. If any consideration is given to the
significant negative effects residents endure, there ought to be no
justification for these high impact music festivals to increase in
crowd size or frequency. 4/ Parklands claim their compliance with
consent conditions thus far has been close to 100%. That is not the
case as there has been approx. 100 breaches documented by locals since
the trial period was granted. We recognise there has been a few
Penalty Infringement Notices issued but we feel it is important there
be no self-regulation permitted so as the consent authority keeps the
Parklands group accountable to the conditions of consent. 5/ Through
the trial period, all the legitimate concerns relating to the
suitability of the site still exist. There have been ongoing problems
which have not and will not be rectified including, traffic congestion
and delays, noise and music vibration effects on surrounding
residential areas, impacts on the environment, impacts on local
infrastructure (particularly roads and sewerage), residential amenity
and safety issues (particularly the ongoing threat of bushfire in the
Billinudgel nature reserve). Parklands may claim that all the problems
have been identified and will be mitigated but the facts illustrate
that most issues that have been a problem since the beginning of use
at the Yelgun site, remain a problem 6 years on. It's not good enough
for Parklands to say we have all matters under control or we can
easily rectify problems that still exist. The Planning Dept. needs to
recognise this site, in many respects, is unsuitable, and because of
that reality be mindful to restrict its expansion and to maintain all
the monitoring and restrictions considerate to maintaining services
and general amenity for the existing and established townships and
communities to the north of the Byron shire. 6/ What are the actual
overall economic benefits? There is no doubt there are massive
financial profits for the Applicant and one can understand their
desire for this site to manifest in size and the frequency of use.
What of the negative and detrimental financial effects on the area.
The Byron shire is an ever-increasing popular tourist destination, but
we have a limit as to how many visitors we can reasonably handle at
any given time. No criticism, we were all young once, but the profile
of most of the patrons that attend mega music festivals is youngish
and aside from expenditure they make at the festival site they
naturally don't spend as much in our general business precincts as
visitors of a more mature or family profile. Do we alienate and make
our area less attractive to visitors that will generally contribute
more to our local businesses through festival times or do we strike a
balance without an unnecessary proliferation of major music festivals?
There has been no independent analysis conducted that objectively
weighs the benefits of the festivals against the cost to the
communities. The economic benefits report, appendix W in the proposal,
was generated by a Parklands paid consultant. Experts in assessing
economic costs and benefits have described the report as incomplete,
inaccurate and misleading. 7/ Aside from the smaller and more benign
use which could easily be interpreted as a convenient front; the
proposed increase of mega music festival use of the site is far from
the `few days a year' that Parklands originally argued was their aim.
Parklands propose 2 massive 5-day events with an increase in crowd
size to 50,000 patrons per day. They also propose an additional 3
festivals with crowd size allowance to 25,000 per day, which is
generally on par with the largest festivals conducted thus far. Each
of these festivals will require significant time to set up and
dismantle, hence the interruption and negative effects on the north of
the shire will increase far beyond what is acceptable or fair.
Remember the Byron shire population is in the vicinity of 30,000; it
is a relatively small population and dramatic influx of crowds of this
magnitude has an immediate and generally detrimental impact Byron
shire wide. 8/ If this proposal is approved, Parklands will pay a mere
$420,000 approx. in section 94 contributions. That will be their
pathetic contribution to bringing this massive development to the
north of the shire; a tiny fraction of the profits that each festival
takes in and not nearly enough to counteract the wear and tear on our
infrastructure which as it is, is in generally a fragile state. 9/
Parklands claim that their intention is to invest $30 million in the
site, thus they will meet a criteria development size wise to be
classified as state significant. Surely their suitability, or lack of
it, goes far beyond just the dollars. A rationale estimate of current
property value covering the towns of Ocean Shores, South Golden Beach,
New Brighton and Brunswick Heads; all significantly impacted by this
proposal, is $3 billion. What of the effects will this high impact
proposal have on the property values throughout this immediate area?
10/ It's interesting to note, the largest music festivals conducted
within Australia, aside from the 2 festivals that are currently held
at Parklands, namely Splendour in the Grass and Falls are as follow:
Tamworth Country Music Festival, Falls Festival Lorne, Tasmania and
Fremantle, Bluesfest (also held in the Byron shire), Beyond the
Valley, St.Jeromes Laneway Festival, Rainbow Serpent Beaufort, Groovin
the Moo and Woodford Folk Festival. Each of these festivals occur only
once each year. On what basis should it be any different here? Mega
music festivals are of very high impact on communities and townships
in many respects. Like it or not we have to accept the current
significant effects once, maybe maximum twice each year. There is no
justification and it would be irresponsible to approve further
increase of crowd size and regularity of major music festival events
at this site. 11/ Billinudgel Nature Reserve and Marshalls Ridge
Wildlife Corridor, into which NSW governments have invested millions
of dollars over decades, are some of the most state significant
natural assets to the north east of NSW. Approval of this proposal
will permanently change the nature of this ecologically important area
for the worse. The state should not have approved festivals at
Parklands to begin with. The government now has an opportunity to
correct that earlier mistake or at the least restrict any future
increase in the scale of this site. To conclude, the applicants have
set a business agenda and for them it's all about the money. The clear
majority of local residents have been in consistent and sustained
opposition to this development over many years; it's been a case of
being forced into a rear-guard action to combat the agenda of the
applicants just to maintain our existing living standards. All parties
deserve to be protected within this proposal. As directly affected, we
are prepared to be compromised to a point, but there must be balance
and much more consideration and weight given to the impacts foist upon
our existing communities and townships. Mark Lycos

I think it is fantastic for the community and also for supporting
Artist's in general.

Our family farm adjoins North Byron Parklands and I support their
application for the permanent use of the North Byron Parklands as a
cultural events site for up to 50,000 patrons.

Byron Bay parklands is an exceptional location to provide cultural and
unique music festivals. Myself, family and friends visit the Byron
shire frequently because of these events and I like the idea that my
monetary contributions assist the Byron shire economy. The parklands
site is more than suitable to accomodate such events as Splendour in
the Grass, such as accommodating a crowd of 50 000. The management of
this celebration of local and international music, have proven that
events such as these are successful on all accounts and that the
impact to the local community is economically viable eg, providing
jobs and sustainable eg, providing composting toilets, recycling and
carbon offsetting. They are adept at finding the right solutions by
continually improving any environmental issues that are concerning to
some and always hold the best interests of the local community first
and foremost in there organisation of the event. Many festivals such
as these around the world draw people from many places due to their
location. Cultural events in the Byron shire and the Byron Parklands
particularly are undoubtedly a definitive draw card. The location is
unique and a major reason why so many visit Byron Bay to attend these
events.

I believe that North Byron Parklands should become a permanent fixture in
the northern NSW region for music, arts and culture. The team behind
this project strive for excellence, with nothing but respect and
consideration for the community it is a part of. It would be a great
loss in the region's development - financially and culturally - if
this submission is not approved.