Ballina adopts new long-term planning statement, with more work flagged on growth areas

Ballina Shire Council has adopted the Ballina Shire Local Strategic Planning Statement 2025-2046 and an addendum, setting the shire’s updated long-term land use planning framework and making several late amendments before finalisation.

At its 26 March meeting, council approved changes including an expanded potential employment investigation area at Alstonville, revised wording for planning action at Newrybar, five rural land use principles, and a new action to consolidate rural land use policy into a single reference document. It also added an action to identify options for additional employment land to meet projected demand.

The adopted changes also alter how land south of Tamarind Drive is described in the statement. The minutes show council agreed to identify about four hectares for residential development potential in line with updated flood modelling, while the remaining land already identified for possible urban expansion would be noted as potential employment land, but significantly constrained and possibly yielding little or no development capacity.

For residents, the statement will guide future planning work across Ballina Shire, including housing, employment land, village planning and rural protections. The meeting also resolved to include a review of the Alstonville Strategic Plan in council’s 2026/27 to 2029/30 Delivery Program and Operational Plan, identified for 2027/28.

Some areas are not settled yet. Before the statement is finalised, councillors asked for a further report to the April 2026 ordinary meeting on three SUGAs, Precinct B North Kinvara, Precinct C Cumbalum and West Lennox Palms at Lennox Head.

Council will now seek endorsement from the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for the LSPS addendum and then submit the endorsed statement and addendum to the department. The minutes also show the Ballina Shire Growth Management Strategy 2012 and West Ballina Planning Study and Structure Plan 2010 will be repealed after the revised statement is published on the NSW Planning Portal.

In the same meeting, council also endorsed a planning proposal for 86 Foresters Way and 38 Old Tintenbar Road, Tintenbar, to amend the minimum lot size map, and sent a draft Biodiversity and Habitat Management development control plan out for public exhibition for at least 28 days.