For years, the Northern Beaches community has raised serious concerns about a proposal to rezone bushfire-prone land for up to 450 homes and a cultural centre off Morgan Road in Belrose due to bushfire risk, environmental impacts and the loss of highly valued bushland. Now finally the application has been withdrawn.
Northern Beaches Council raised concerns that the proposal did not align with key local and regional planning strategies or the environmental values of the site. It did not adequately address bushfire risk and evacuation access, impacts on flora and fauna, Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and inadequate infrastructure.
The proponent, the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council couldn’t get the Rural Fire Service to agree to a proposal at the scale or safety standards they wanted. The Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council retains the ability to alter and resubmit a new planning proposal for the site in the future and changes to the government planning to place ultimate priority on more housing could change the standards being applied.
Recent planning law changes appear to compromise consideration of bushfire risk
This is a good outcome that primarily recognises bushfire risk but changes have been made by NSW government to the Planning Act that creates considerable uncertainty that proper consideration will be the normal practice in development consents. Previously the consent authority had to ensure that the development conformed with the requirements of the Planning for Bushfire Protection procedure written by the Rural Fire Service. Now it merely has to be considered and it appears that reasons for a decision do not have to be disclosed.
In November 2025, Michael Regan, the independent member for Wakehurst on the Northern Beaches, tabled an amendment to the Planning Act relating to bushfire protection to address his serious concerns about downgrading the role of Rural Fire Service’s expertise in decision-making about strategic planning. The bill is about safeguarding this role by establishing the Rural Fire Service as the agency responsible for the state's bushfire-prone land mapping including reviewing bushfire‑prone land mapping every five years.
Currently local councils are responsible for initiating the mapping review process but often lack the resources to carry this out. That means that maps are inconsistent, and some are out of date and no longer reflect the real fire risk, which may have increased or decreased, largely depending on landscape vegetation changes and new housing construction.
The Climate Change and Natural Hazards SEPP under the NSW planning law is still being finalised. The main criterion applied in assessing strategic plans is the concept of ‘tolerable risk’. How this is defined is causing much concern. More on that issue in a later edition of STEP Matters.