RU4 landowners face possible new uses and zoning changes across Bega Valley

Landowners across the Bega Valley Shire’s RU4 Primary Production Small Lots zone will have a planning proposal prepared for cafes, restaurants and secondary dwellings, while a separate study examines three possible future zoning categories.

Bega Valley Shire Council unanimously endorsed the RU4 Primary Production Small Lots Zone Review on 15 July. The resolution directs officers to prepare a planning proposal that would allow restaurants or cafes and secondary dwellings with consent in the RU4 zone, as operational priorities allow.

The resolution does not itself permit those uses or rezone any land. It starts further planning work, with no implementation date specified for either the planning proposal or the possible rezoning.

Officers will also prepare a scoping study covering all land currently zoned RU4, except for the section of Buckajo recommended to remain RU4. The study will examine rezoning land to R5 Large Lot Residential, C4 Environmental Living or RU1 Primary Production, with no changes to lot sizes.

The three categories would represent different planning outcomes for affected properties. R5 is the proposed large-lot residential category, C4 is the environmental-living category and RU1 is the primary-production category identified in the review.

The eight councillors present voted in favour. Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick was absent.

The work will proceed as operational priorities allow. Future changes would require the planning proposal and scoping work to progress through the relevant formal planning processes before any zoning or permitted-use changes take effect.

The RU4 review is separate from amendments to the Bega Valley Development Control Plan 2013 adopted at the same meeting. Those amendments will take effect on 15 September 2026, but that date does not apply to the RU4 planning pathway.

For affected landowners, the next stage is the preparation of the planning proposal and scoping study. The review identifies possible changes to permitted uses and zoning, but the existing RU4 classification is not replaced by this resolution.