Draft Michelago Development Control and Local Infrastructure Plans

Thank you to those who provided feedback on the draft Michelago Development Control and Local Infrastructure Plans. This phase of the consultation has now closed and our team is now reviewing all feedback.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The draft Michelago Site Specific Development Control Plan and Development Contributions Plan are mechanisms to implement Councils Michelago Master Plan. The draft plans seek to ensure future development is consistent with the desired character outlined in the Michelago Master Plan. The plans also seek to ensure development pays its fair share towards the future provision of local infrastructure.

Draft Development Control Plan 

The Michelago Master Plan identifies future growth areas and future character sought by the Michelago community. Most of the character aspects go to maintaining the rural village nature of the area, maintaining landscape values and creating continuity between the existing village and the new. To achieve this outcome, it is recommended additional site-specific controls are incorporated into the current Cooma-Monaro DCP to achieve positive design outcomes for the Michelago Community.

In the current Cooma-Monaro Development Control Plan, there are existing site-specific controls for Michelago which apply only to the development of lots fronting Ryrie Street. Given that lots fronting Ryrie Street are, for the most part, long parcels with narrow Street frontages, specific controls to handle subdivision of these parcels is recommended to remain. As such, these controls have been reviewed, updated and incorporated into the draft DCP chapter.

The draft DCP chapter has been split into three (3) parts outlining controls that deal with subdivision, energy efficiency and, as mentioned above, lots fronting Ryrie Street.

Controls regarding subdivision seek to ensure all future subdivisions create lots that allow for suitable building envelopes, maintain existing vegetation, achieve best practice crime prevention through environmental design outcomes and provide an appropriate area for effluent disposals. The road and shared path network of all future subdivisions must reflect the collector road layout identified in the Master Plan and DCP and limit Monaro Highway access. In addition, lots created will be required to be orientated to maximise solar access and cross ventilation from buildings.

General controls in the DCP chapter refer to using energy-efficient materials, designing dwellings to maximise solar orientation and sufficiently sized rainwater tanks. These controls also provide appropriate stormwater infrastructure, building designs and materials that contribute to the local character and consistent setbacks for new dwellings.

These site-specific DCP controls will provide an effective mechanism to achieve the outcomes identified in the Michelago Master Plan. The DCP controls identified above, coupled with existing controls for Ryrie Street, will allow for an enhanced and unique local character at Michelago.

Development Contributions Plan 

A draft Michelago Development Contributions Plan has also been prepared. The Contributions Plan will allow for the adequate provision of infrastructure as Michelago grows. The draft plan will also create a mechanism to fund some of the infrastructure identified in the Master Plan. The contributions plan will repeal the Yarralumla and Cooma-Monaro s94 plans for the land covered by the draft plan, the area covered by the draft plan is shown in figure 1 below.

Figure 1 – Michelago Contributions Plan Catchment Area.

The draft plan is designed as a hybrid s7.11 and s7.12 plan (former s94 and s94a). By utilising the two different types of contributions, this will capture a wider variety of development. Commercial or employment generating development is also incentivised by an s7.12 contribution levy that generally generates a lower contribution cost. The draft plan will also be easier to implement and administer because it utilises contributions levies under these two sections.

The draft contributions plan has been prepared in accordance with sections 7.11 and 7.12 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 along with Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 and practice notes issued by the planning secretary.

The practise notes issued by the planning secretary outline the principle of fairness when applying development contributions. The principle of fairness incorporates two core elements; apportionment and nexus. Apportionment is the principle that new development only pays for its impact on infrastructure. If infrastructure only benefits new development, the developer(s) will bear the full costs. Nexus is the principle that contributions levied from a development will be spent on infrastructure that benefits that development.

Table 1 – s7.11 contributions by infrastructure or service type to be charged per ET

Table 2 – s7.12 fixed levy contribution

Contributions levied under this plan must only be spent on infrastructure works that benefit the existing and future community of Michelago. A draft work schedule is outlined in table 3 below. The prioritisation of works in this work schedule is based on survey results for the draft Michelago Master Plan consultation, which sought the community to rank infrastructure in terms of its priority.

Table 3 – Draft Works Schedule