Community
Revised Jindabyne DCP to be released

Jindabyne residents will be interested in the release of the revised Jindabyne Development Control Plan (DCP) in mid June.

The draft Jindabyne DCP was on public exhibition from 8 November 2023 to 7 February 2024 as part of the SAP master plan documents where the community were able to submit their concerns with any of the detail in the draft plan.

The revised plan, taking into consideration any of the submissions will be released on June 14. On June 20 a scheduled Council meeting will be held to discuss and accept the plan.

A group of residents and key stakeholders requested could an earlier preview of the reports to Council (the submissions report and the planner's recommendations report) be made available by May 31.

From June 14 to June 20 is not sufficient time to digest any new changes to the document, and then prepare responses to what is a very detailed document.

In addition, with the commencement of the snow season from the Kings long weekend from June 8-10, the community and businesses will also be focused on their work as their workload ramps up for the winter season.

Major concerns raised to Council hierarchy from key stakeholders include:

  • The Department of Planning is undertaking direct stakeholder engagement with the Resort Operators and Stakeholders for the Alpine DCP, but not with the Jindabyne DCP.
  • Have the elected Councillors been briefed on the severity of the problems with the draft DCP, and the submissions made?
  • Have the elected Councillors been asked whether the revised DCP should be placed on public exhibition, or at least afford stakeholders the ability to review the revised DCP before being sent to Council for adoption?

In support of an earlier release of the papers, Snowy Mountains Magazine (SMM) also sent a request to council to fast track the release of the reports. Council replied to SMM with the same cut and paste response to other requests:

I appreciate your time to reiterate the point of when documents are made available for viewing, in relation to the Jindabyne DCP.

In accordance with the Local Government Act 1993, the Business Papers for the 20 June 2024 Council Meeting will be made available to the public as nearly as possible to the time they are made available to the councillors. The report and recommendations for the Jindabyne DCP therefore, will be released with the rest of the Business Paper, 14 June 2024.

Please note the reports will consider the submissions received during the public exhibition from 8 November 2023 to 7 February 2024. This was an extended period above the 28 days’ timeframe prescribed in legislation, and offered an opportunity which many took up, for direct conversations and formal written correspondence on the contents of the Jindabyne DCP.

The redacted version of the submissions received will be made available on the Jindabyne DCP Your Say Page (https://yoursaysnowymonaro.com.au/draft-jindabyne-dcp), as early as next week, if you were interested in seeing the nature of matters raised.

If you wish to speak at the public forum, you must make an application to Council that must be submitted no later than 2 full business days before the date on which the Council meeting is to be held. For example, the deadline for submissions is midnight the Monday before a Thursday Council meeting. For the Ordinary Council Meeting 20 June 2024, the application is due 17 June 2024. The application form can be accessed on Council’s website, or here.

Key stake holders were disappointed in the Jindabyne DCP process saying that allowing only seven days prior to the council meeting and offering speakers only five minutes to present to council at that meeting was not sufficient considering the enormity and power of the DCP documents for the 40 year vision of the master plan.

"We are very concerned the re-drafting of the DCP has been rushed to make an artificial June 30 financial year cut-off.  This could be at the expense of the Jindabyne community," said one key stakeholder who has extensive knowledge of the DCP.

Margaret McKinnon from the East Jindabyne Community Group said this document is the outcome of several years of work by the SAP (Snowy Mountains Special Activation Precinct Master Plan) team in conjunction with the community and the Community Advisory Group.

“This new DCP document is too important to the future of Jindabyne and East Jindabyne for it to be rushed through Council without proper opportunity for the community to consider the planners' changes to the Plan in response to their feedback,” said Margaret McKinnon.

Residents and interested parties should take note of the June 14 date when the Business Paper and all documents will be released.

A council report is being finalised for the June 20 council meeting. This report will present recommendations and amendments to the DCP for determination by council.

See Submissions here as early as prior to June long weekend

https://yoursaysnowymonaro.com.au/draft-jindabyne-dcp

Form to speak at Council meeting

250.2020.4.3-form-public-forum-application.pdf (nsw.gov.au)