At the council meeting held on Wednesday 23 February council resolved unanimously to support the proposed Armidale Regional Local Environmental Plan (LEP). The new LEP combines the former Guyra Shire LEP and Armidale Dumaresq LEP.
Whilst the LEP essentially merged the Guyra and Armidale Dumaresq instruments, Council also supported some minor changes to the land uses around Mother of Ducks Lagoon in Guyra, a property on Newton Street and a property on Rusden Street in Armidale following representations from the owners.
Mayor Coupland said that the resolution to support the new LEP brought together 10 months' of work by the planning team and was an essential first step to delivering a local planning system that encourages opportunities rather than hinders them.
"It was no small task for our planners to pull together these two planning schemes, but I'm particularly pleased that we were also able to accommodate many of the requests that we received from land owners despite the main focus being to merge the two documents," said mayor Coupland
"We are now calling on the NSW Government to support the new LEP and let us get on with the business of growing our region."
Council will now refer the LEP package of documents to the NSW Government to seek their endorsement prior to it coming into effect.
