Kiama Mayor Cameron McDonald said Council is ready to move ahead with its Housing Strategy at its meeting next month.

After he recently met with NSW Housing Minister Paul Scully, Cr McDonald is hopeful of making progress after Council was inundated with feedback from the Draft Local Housing Strategy (Draft v2) being on public exhibition between 21 February and 27 April.

“Council will consider the finalised strategy for adoption at our July Council meeting,” he said.

“And accompanying that will be an analysis of all the feedback we received from our pop-ups, from our website, from public discussions to show that we've listened, we've considered, and this is the final strategy.”

Cr McDonald described the catch-up with the minister as positive and along with CEO Jane Stroud and Director of Planning, Environment and Communities Ed Paterson, they were able to bring Scully up to speed on the housing strategy and assure him that Council is implementing the performance directions from the state government. 

Council is looking at various scenarios for the Housing Strategy which will be debated at next month’s meeting.

“Council will consider the finalised strategy for adoption at our July Council meeting,” he said.

“We’re looking at the bigger picture from a development point of view that will take into account the infrastructure needs that we require locally and not to look at developments in isolation that possibly don't trigger the need for aninfrastructure upgrade, but to consider the overall development framework and policy of the local area as a whole so that the necessary discussions with state agencies and other agencies can occur so that we aren't caught out,” the Mayor added.

Despite written submissions to the state government and ongoing discussions with the relevant departments, there is still no resolution on Council’s request to have controversial caveats lifted so residential land can be sold in Glenbrook Drive, near Spring Creek.

“We do have five blocks of land out there that are connected to water and sewage,” he said.

“There are houses built between those lots and Bombo Quarry, which is the subject of the caveat - the operations there. So it doesn't make sense for that caveat to remain in place. 

“And while we're under a performance improvement whereby we need to have balance neutral finances by 2027, that would provide much-needed income for Council to be able to move forward and achieve our objectives.”