Eurobodalla Council vote against 800 home Broulee development in heated meeting

A regional NSW council has voted against a mammoth 800 home development on the south coast, with one councillor reacting to the events of the meeting as “absolute bulls**t”.

Plans for the proposed 800 home lot.

A proposal to construct hundreds of homes in a south coast hamlet struggling with a lack of housing has been denied during a heated council meeting, with one councillor describing the events of the debate as “absolute bulls**t”.

Eurobodalla Council ultimately voted against the proposal – known as ‘The Farm’ – which would have seen 800 homes built in an undeveloped section of Broulee, 20km south of Batemans Bay.

Councillors voted on the mega housing proposal on Tuesday during their first meeting of the year, opting not to support the development application, which would have rezoned 126.7 hectares of farm land at 207 Broulee Rd, from primary production to environmental living.

Sydney-based developer Brightlands Living submitted the development to Eurobodalla Council, describing the proposal as “a unique community that integrates agriculture into a residential neighbourhood”.

The vote for the housing proposal came down four to four, with Eurobodalla mayor Matthew Hatcher and councillors Tanya Dannock, Amber Schultz and Tubby Harrison voting to support the proposal being sent to the NSW Government’s Gateway determination – a process which sees the proposal reviewed to determine if it should proceed to public exhibition.

However, councillors Anthony Mayne, Alison Worthington, Pete Diskon and Rob Pollock voted against the development.

Councillor David Grace was the sole member to abstain, given a property he owns in Broulee being a conflict of interest.

Eurobodalla councillor Rob Pollock.

Mr Hatcher ultimately used his casting vote as mayor against the proposal, despite earlier voting for it.

“It’s absolute bulls**t,” Mr Pollock, who voted against, told The South Coast News.

“The mayor choses to support it and speak to it, but when he’s given the casting vote, he votes against it? It doesn’t make sense.”

During the heated meeting, Mr Hatcher said he ultimately rejected the proposal due to council not coming to an agreement.

“It’s my belief that we need to be open to new ideas and at least be testing those, but it fell four to four and I had a casting vote,” he said.

“With that, I went against my original decision.

Eurobodalla Council mayor Matthew Hatcher.

“I feel quite strongly that it’s not the role of any chair or mayor to, over a long term, change the direction of the shire.”

Mr Pollock said while he could see the necessity of such a housing development, he could not in good conscious vote in favour as it would be “fast tracking” the developer.

“Sending this to council in this way for us to then send it to the state government is bypassing the processes that other developers have to go through,” he said.

“Just down the road is another rezoned, housing site that went through all the strenuous council and planning processes; us fast tracking this development wouldn’t be very fair on them.”

Brightlands Living can now approach the NSW Government themselves with the proposal, however the Sydney-based developers declined to comment on the situation.

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