Like many of you, I was surprised and concerned to learn about the proposal for a 14-storey development in Akuna Street.

The proposal is for a site where Council has done considerable work with the community and various state agencies to deliver site-specific planning controls that fit our needs and are in line with the consensus vision for the Kiama town centre.

It’s important our community understands that this proposal isn’t a Council decision.

The State Government’s Housing Development Authority (HDA) has recommended that the NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces declare this project as a State Significant Development (SSD).

This particular HDA SSD pathway enables concurrent rezoning to circumvent local planning controls, removes Council from decision-making and limits our community’s voice to a submission.

That’s not good planning.

While we welcome reforms and changes, the role of local government and local communities in planning outcomes should be a primary one and should always be protected.

Over the past year, Council has shown what collaborative, community-driven planning looks like.

We worked with residents to deliver a Local Housing Strategy that balances growth with infrastructure, protects the character of our towns and ensures housing meets real local needs.

We did that work in good faith and at significant cost, because local voices and local expertise should guide our Municipality’s future.

To see that effort sidelined by a process that removes community involvement is deeply concerning.

We all recognise that housing growth is essential, but it must be done right.

Housing in the wrong place, at the wrong scale, with no regard for design, infrastructure or amenity doesn’t solve the housing crisis.

It just creates new problems for future generations.

There’s a well-known story about the original 1830s town plan for Kiama being drawn up by a Sydney-based state cartographer.

Kiama’s hills, slopes, sweeping coastlines and cliffs rendered those plans and perfect rectangular planned streets redundant.

It took local knowledge to draw a plan that worked, one shaped by our own topography, our own needs, and our own sense of place.

Good towns become great towns when planning looks beyond rooftops and considers the whole picture, incorporating schools, water, sewerage, parks, sports grounds, roads, public transport and community spaces that let people work, shop and live locally.

Last week, your Council resolved to send correspondence to the State Government expressing our concerns around the HDA SSD process.

I know how important local voices are, and so as a Council we are raising our voices.

As a Council, we’re doing our fair share.

We’ve supported sensible infill development, planned for future growth, and built strong relationships with Planning Minister Paul Scully and the NSW Government.

But we’ll keep advocating for a system that treats councils and communities as partners.

So, what happens next?

Once a proposal is declared as an SSD, an application needs to be lodged with the NSW Government.

Council and the community will be asked to provide feedback on the proposal once exhibited.

The application will either be determined by the Minister, the Independent Planning Commission or an officer of the NSW Department Planning, Housing and Environment.

Kiama’s future should not be dictated by Sydney-based planners and bureaucrats.

We’ll continue to speak up for planning done with our community, not to it.

We’ll continue to advocate for planning in partnership with our community, and for growth with the right infrastructure that meets the local needs and protects the qualities that make Kiama unique.

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