Administrator rejects rezoning report, no reasons given

The Empire Bay and Districts Roads Action Group is outraged at the report on page 13 of the July 10 edition of the Peninsula News about a proposal to rezone land on Rosella Rd and Empire Bay Dve from E2 Environmental Conservation to R2 Low Density Housing. It is unacceptable that, despite Council staff submitting a report to the administrator, Mr Ian Reynolds, that gave multiple reasons for recommending refusal of the proposal, Mr Reynolds did not accept that recommendation, instead deferred the decision until a further report is prepared by Council staff. The Group is totally outraged by this autocratic, developer-friendly stance taken by an unelected administrator against all indicators that “The land contains attributes consistent with the existing E2 Zone which are unsuitable to be included in the R2 Zone,” as the staff report stated. The report detailed over 10 major reasons why the rezoning shouldn’t take place and yet the administrator has chosen to ignore the report, gave no reasons why and provided zero evidence to support the deferment or the rezoning. The Group implores concerned community members to email Mr Reynolds in the strongest possible terms, an objection to any attempt to have that sensitive, fl ood prone land rezoned as R2. Please copy in our Federal and State representatives, Ms Lucy Wicks, Ms Liesl Tesch and Mr Adam Crouch as well. Tell your neighbours and friends and let’s get some action to stop this madness. Email, 20 Jul 2017 Gregory Olsen, EBDRAG