A planning proposal to rezone land at Monaltrie between Durheim Road, Monaltrie Lane and Wyrallah Road was kept alive at last night's Lismore City Council meeting, but it wasn't without passionate debate between councillors after Lismore City Council (LCC) staff recommended that no more work be carried out on the proposal.

Councillor (Cr) Andrew Gordon proposed an alternative resolution, that Council:

1. officers finalise the Planning Proposal and submit it to the Department of Planning and Environment for Gateway Determination

2. proceed to public exhibition of the Planning Proposal, in accordance with any requirements of a Gateway determination

3. officers report back to Council upon conclusion of the public exhibition.

The passionate debate, as it mostly does when it involves future planning and development, revolved around a koala-breeding corridor.

The proposal included rezoning part of the subject land from RU1 Primary Production to part R5 Large Lot Residential and part C2 Environmental Conservation. There was an alteration of the minimum lot size for the R5 Large Lot Residential part of the subject land from 40 hectares to a range of minimum lot sizes from 3,600m2 to 5 ha (depending on the topography) and the application of a building height limit of 9 metres.

The site has an area of approximately 161 hectares and has the potential to yield around 100 rural residential lots over the long term. A small portion of the site is proposed to remain in the RU1 zone to reflect it is flood-prone. Other parts of the site are proposed to be included in a C2 zone to reflect its significance as koala habitat, its steepness, or its potential to be planted out as future koala habitat.

The recommendation from council staff was that the proposal be rejected because of the likely loss and fragmentation of the koala habitat and the human impact upon a regionally important koala population. Plus, it does not accord with council's Local Strategic Planning Statement and supporting strategies and that council does not have a demonstrated need for additional large lot residential land outside of the sites endorsed in their Growth and Realignment Strategy.

Public access had Friends of the Koala Ina Egermann speaking for council staff's recommendation while one of the owners of the land, Gale Munce and Damian Licari, a consultant from Ascent Ecology, spoke against the recommendation.

Protecting a key breeding koala corridor was the key point for councillors Ekins, Guise, Bird and Cook as well as the need for more affordable housing and not the large lot residential blocks proposed.

Cr Ekins called the large-lot blocks "high end real estate" while Cr Guise's passion was on display when he called the planning proposal "A koala killing development".

On the other hand, Cr Gordon said, "For 20 years council has been very good at saying no", and Cr Rob mentioned the comment made by council staff of the positive economic impact this would have for Lismore. Cr Rob mentioned that council staff saw one koala during their research and that koala tree buffers could be created on the larger lot-sized land.

The plan was originally knocked back by councillors in 2017 3/8 with Crs Ekins, Guise and Cook voting against it. However, no active resolution was reached, hence why it was brought back to council in 2023.

The vote was 7/4, with Crs Gordon, Colby, Hall, Jensen, Rob, Bing and Krieg voting for the planning proposal and Crs Ekins, Guise, Cook and Bird voting against it.

We definitely have not heard the last of the Monaltrie planning proposal, especially if the Department of Planning and Environment approved it and it went on public submission.