Planning Proposal to Rezone land on the NSW/ACT Border (Parkwood) for urban settlement and environmental conservation (5,000 dwellings/1,000 jobs)

Council seeks to prepare a new local environmental plan to rezone land for urban development on the boundary of the ACT and the NSW border within Yass Valley Shire.The new release area will be in conjunction with a release area in the ACT collectively known as Parkwood.

The Parkwood release area covering both the ACT and NSW will create approximately 11,500 dwellings with urban services for the area to be provided primarily by the ACT Government.The planning proposal for the Parkwood release area in NSW will create approximately 5,000 dwellings to accommodate a population of 13,000 people.The NSW component of the Parkwood site has an area of approximately 600 hectares. Approximately 394 hectares is proposed to be used for urban purposes and 206 hectares proposed to be used for conservation/riparian uses.

REVISED PLANNING PROPOSAL 2018
Yass Valley Council has requested the Department issue a Gateway Alteration for a revised planning proposal adopted at its meeting 25 October 2017. In summary the revised planning proposal includes the following changes;
• reduce the footprint of urban development in the R1 General Residential Zone from 394 ha to 387 ha,
• apply both an E3 Environmental Management Zone (25 ha) and E2 Environmental Conservation Zone (188 ha) to environmentally sensitive areas,
• apply an SP1 Special Activities Zone (1 ha) to the Ginninderra Falls Precinct near Ginninderra Falls (recreation area, tourism, community buildings emergency facilities),
• include additional LEP provisions to manage environmentally sensitive areas,
• include a cross border ‘Services and Infrastructure Report’ to address cross-border servicing between NSW and the ACT.

The Department is currently assessing the revised planning proposal in conjunction with comments received from the NSW Rural Fire Service in accordance with s117 Direction 4.4 Planning for Bushfire Protection.

GATEWAY ALTERATION - EXTENSION OF TIME
An extension of time was issued for completing the LEP on the 27 April 2018. The new time frame for completing the LEP is 16 April 2019.