Save forty hectares of forest in Jervis Bay from the bulldozer

The beautiful town of Callala in Jervis Bay is facing down a huge development proposal that would see some of the area's most biodiverse bushland bulldozed and replaced with suburbia.

Sealark Pty Ltd, which is owned by the Halloran Trust, want to develop 380 lots in Callala, which would destroy 40.19 hectares of pristine bush that adjoins the Jervis Bay National Park. This bush survived the 2019-20 bushfires and is now a critical refuge for wildlife in the area whilst surrounding bushland fully recovers from the fire damage.

Recent surveys show that it is an incredibly rich patch of forest, full of threatened species including the greater gliders and yellow-bellied gliders, grey-headed flying fox and gang-gang cockatoo.

This proposal has not received consent yet, with the proponent requiring the land to be rezoned to allow it to be destroyed.

Please make a submission before June 17 opposing this development to save our forests and its precious wildlife.

I object to the proposal to rezone 40.19ha of tall coastal forest to R1 general residential at Callala Bay. Please rezone this land to national park.  
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1">The land is extremely important habitat for many threatened species that live there; greater glider, yellow-bellied glider, eastern pygmy possum, powerful owl, glossy black-cockatoo, gang-gang cockatoo, greyheaded flying-fox and the Bauer’s midge orchid Genoplesium baeuri and must be protected in perpetuity.   </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1">Greater gliders have disappeared from the nearby Booderee National Park and are in serious decline, along with yellow-bellied gliders, in Murramarang National Park and areas around Conjola that were decimated by the Currowan bushfire. Yellow-bellied gliders were recently listed as vulnerable in NSW. All remaining unburnt patches of tall coastal forest in the Shoalhaven must be protected in perpetuity.   </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1">The 40.19ha of tall coastal forest at Callala was spared in the disastrous 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires. It is extremely important to protect unburnt forests as they are refugia for threatened and non-threatened fauna species following these fires. This is especially important in the Shoalhaven as 85% of regions forests was impacted by fire.  </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1">The environmental assessment submitted by the applicant is based on survey data that predates the 2019/20 bushfires and is therefore out of date. The proponent should be made to undertake updated environmental assessments before this proceeds further.  </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1">The environmental assessment submitted used the flawed NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act biodiversity offset scheme methodology that was the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in  June 2021 and the results have not yet been released. No planning applications using the methodology should be determined until the findings of the inquiry are made public and flaws in the scheme removed.   </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1">No details of the offset site are provided to show the proposed offsets are like for like. The proposal will result in a net loss of 40.19ha of tall coastal forest.   </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="4" data-aria-level="1">The planning proposal will do nothing to improve housing affordability or land supply with the developer planning to trickle release the lots if they are approved in stages over 12 years to keep the price of the land high and maximise their profits. Future housing needs should be met using already cleared land.   </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="5" data-aria-level="1">The land identified for the offsets is land that is not identified as  suitable for development in the Jervis Bay Settlement  Strategy (2003) and also would be against Shoalhaven City Council policy of not developing new isolated residential areas. Therefore, the protection by Biodiversity Certification of these areas is not diverting land away from development, as it should not be developed.  </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1">The intensity of development will increase contaminated runoff to Callala Creek which is identified as environmentally sensitive and an important fish breeding area.   </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1">The development of this large area will increase the number of people exposed to bushfires and make evacuation more difficult.  </li>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="1" data-list-defn-props="{" aria-setsize="-1" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1">Clearing of forest is directly in opposition to mitigating climate change and meeting the NSW goal of halving carbon emissions by 2030.  </li>
</ul>

I would like to BCC myself