Yass Valley Council
Re. the proposed rezoning of Lot 2 DP1144979 Wallaroo Road (Lot 2)
Friends of Grasslands (FOG) and the Conservation Council ACT Region (CCACT) (together, ‘We’ or ‘Us’) appreciate the opportunity to comment on proposed rezoning.
FOG is a community group dedicated to the conservation of grassy ecosystems in south-eastern Australia - natural temperate grasslands and grassy woodlands. FOG advocates, educates and advises on matters to do with the conservation of these ecosystems, and carries out surveys and on-ground work. FOG is based in Canberra and its members include professional scientists, landowners, land managers and interested members of the public.
The CCACT is the peak non-government
environment organisation for the Canberra region. Since 1981, we have spoken
up for a healthy environment and a sustainable future.
We campaign for a safe climate, to protect biodiversity in urban and natural
areas, to protect and enhance waterways, reduce waste, and promote
sustainable transport and planning for our region.
We do not consider C3 zoning, ‘environmental management’, is appropriate. The appropriate zoning for Lot 2 should be C2 ‘environmental conservation’; that is and will continue to be the primary use of Lot 2 for the long term. That is because Lot 2 is an 86.8 hectare environmental offset “selected on the basis of its ability to provide a biodiversity offset local to the area of impact.”[1] The intention to establish and manage Lot 2 as a protected area, to support local populations of Golden Sun Moth (GSM), is clear and explicit, i.e., a conservation measure required under law includes:
A biodiversity offsets package for [GSM] which will place an additional 86.8 hectare site (lot 2 Wallaroo Road NSW) supporting threatened species into protected areas (sic).[2]
Additional evidence is cited in Attachment 1.
If that is not accepted, we vehemently oppose the proposal to include Electricity Generating Works as an additional permitted use on Lot 2. Our evidence is detailed in Attachment 2.
In case Yass Valley Council is not aware:
- Condition 7 of an approval granted under national environmental law – to implement a program of urban development in west Belconnen – applies to and protects all the red‑shaded polygon labelled “Lot 2 Wallaroo Road” shown in Attachment 2.
- Nothing in the offset management plan made for Lot 2 mentions anything about the threat posed by developing half of this Golden Sun Moth Conservation Reserve.[3]
A more-appropriate land use consistent with the establishment and ongoing management of Lot 2 as a Golden Sun Moth Conservation Reserve would be, not adaptation via potential electricity generating works, but instead an environmental programme to restore native diversity and original native dominance that clearly existed before Europeans degraded it via farming.
Lot 2 was purchased initially by the Commonwealth; only later was it purchased by the ACT Government’s Suburban Land Authority. We understand the Commonwealth’s intention was to ensure Lot 2 would be securely (permanently) protected. We intend to enquire further about the Commonwealth’s involvement.
Recommendation
That Yass Valley Local Environmental Plan 2013 (LEP) be amended to rezone Lot 2 DP1144979 Wallaroo Road from RU1 Primary Production to C2 Environmental Conservation.
Yours sincerely,
|
SIGNED |
SIGNED |
|
Jamie
Pittock 4 November 2025 |
Dr Simon
Copland 4 November 2025 |
Attachment 1
What is the most-appropriate zoning for Lot 2
The difference between C2 and C3 zoning[4] is stark.
The objectives of a C2 zone are to:
- protect, manage and restore areas of high ecological, scientific, cultural or aesthetic values.
- prevent development that could destroy, damage or otherwise have an adverse effect on those values.
The objectives of a C3 zone are to:
- protect, manage and restore areas with special ecological, scientific, cultural or aesthetic values.
- provide for a limited range of development that does not have an adverse effect on those values.
Lot 2 has high ecological value. Attachment 2 shows the protection and long-term management of Lot 2 has been required under national environmental law to compensate for actions that have been approved and that will, if they proceed, have a significant impact on the GSM population(s). A key value of Lot 2 is that it helps to connect two adjacent GSM Conservation Reserves; to support the local GSM population, the three reserves must be retained and improved as one whole unit.
Allowing Lot 2 to be zoned in a way that would permit the construction of a “development that could destroy, damage or otherwise have an adverse effect on those values” is not appropriate. An electricity sub-station (or similar) is a facility that would fragment the GSM population, an adverse effect.
This reading is supported by the advisory but influential Northern Councils E Zone Review: Final Recommendations Report.[5] That report recommends a zoning of environmental conservation where environmental conservation is the primary use of the land and that land contains attributes listed for that zone. As above, Lot 2 is to be managed for an environmental conservation purpose. Lot 2 includes ‘Key Threatened Species Habitat’. By any reading of Table 1 in the Northern Councils E Zone Review: Final Recommendations Report[6], the criteria for the inclusion of Lot 2 in an environmental conservation zone (now C2) are satisfied.
Attachment 2
Lot 2 is protected in its entirety - ‘Electricity Generating Works’ is not a ‘compatible use’
To make this argument, it is necessary to engage with the detail.
On 1 Sep 2017, an approval was granted under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) to Riverview Projects (ACT) Pty Ltd (Riverview) to implement an ‘endorsed Program’ of urban development in the west Belconnen area[7], as set out in Riverview’s endorsed Program Report.[8]
Riverview acts as the project manager implementing the endorsed Program in a joint venture partnership with the ACT Government.[9]
Within the west Belconnen area there are several populations of GSM known along Ginninderra Creek and its tributaries.[10] When the decision-maker granted the EPBC Act approval, they recognised the endorsed Program would result in significant negative impacts on these populations, including habitat loss and fragmentation, and required the establishment and management for the long term of a compensatory offset (conditions 7 and 9, respectively).[11]
We understand Riverview still intends to proceed with the part of the endorsed Program that will harm the GSM population, i.e., to extend Ginninderra Drive through the Jaramlee Grassland Reserve.
Given condition 7, Riverview cannot commence extending this road unless a ‘GSM Conservation Reserve’ has been established at Lot 2 to connect the two other GSM Conservation Reserves on offset sites that are adjacent in the ACT – Jaramlee and Dunlop Grassland Reserves – “in accordance with ... Actions 2 to 4 at Table 4 of the endorsed Program.”[12]
Actions 3 and 4 of the endorsed Program are reproduced here in full, with one word underlined by Us:s:
The first three dot points in column 3 of Action 3 are very specific concerning what is to occur on 33.1 ha of Lot 2.
We understand Riverview must have told the Yass Valley Council that the ‘EPBC approval required 33.1 ha to be preserved as GSM habitat which would be met via the outcome of this Planning Proposal’, because this statement is found in both the Gateway Determination Report[13] and in the report prepared for the Ordinary Meeting of the Yass Valley Council on 23 June 2025.[14] In the days ahead, We will look to submit a Formal Access Application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) to obtain the final rezoning submission Riverview state they submitted to Yass Valley Council in April 2025.[15]
What Riverview appears to have omitted
is the requirement to retain and manage the entire residual portion of Lot 2 as
a Golden Sun Moth Conservation Reserve. We draw attention to the ‘and’ at the
end of dot point 3 in column 3 of Action 3 (underlined above). .
There can be no doubt that the connectivity requirement covers s all of Lot 2:
- The term ‘Golden Sun Moth Conservation Reserves’ is defined in the EPBC Act approval (as varied) as “the areas represented in Figure 14 of the Program by the red-shaded polygons labelled “Lot 2 Wallaroo Road17] Figure 14 is reproduced below, it clearly identifies allll 86.8 ha of Lot 2 as an ‘Environmental offset area’.
- Riverview’s Annual Report 2023-2024
Ginninderry Project states “Throughout the Program Report and the conditions
of approval, Lot 2 Wallaroo Road is proposed to form part of the GSM
conservation reserves
Given condition 7 and Riverview’s intention to proceed with extending Ginninderra Drive, the whole of Lot 2 is protected with the full force of the EPBC Act.t.
References
[1] Riverview Projects (ACT) Pty Ltd (Riverview) (2017) West Belconnen Project Strategic Assessment: Strategic Assessment Report, https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/f0e0261d-5c7f-4589-a0ec-c8879c09b7c2/files/sa024-strategic-assessment-report.pdf, p. 167; As an aside, we note Lot 2 is itself an offset for an impact on an offset.
[2] Riverview (2025) Annual Compliance Report 2024/25 Ginninderry Project, https://ginninderry.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/250829-EPBCAnnualReport-FY24-25.pdf, p. 6
[3] ACT Parks and Conservation Service (2021) Gooromon Grasslands Offset Management Plan 2018–23, https://www.planning.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/2331926/gooromon-grasslands-offset-management-plan-2018-23.pdf
[4] Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Order 2006, Land Use Table, https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/epi-2006-0155#sch-inc-pt-cg1.Zone_C2
[5] NSW Department of Planning and Environment (2015) Northern Councils E Zone Review Final Recommendations Report, https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-03/northern-councils-e-zone-review-final-recommendations-report.pdf
[6] NSW Department of Planning and Environment n 4, Table 1 on p. 13
[7] Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCCEEW) (Sep 2017) Final approval decision for the taking of actions in accordance with an endorsed program under the [EPBC Act], https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/f0e0261d-5c7f-4589-a0ec-c8879c09b7c2/files/sa024-final-approval-notice.pdf
[8] Riverview (April 2017) Urban Development at West Belconnen Program Report Program Report (the endorsed Program Report), https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/f0e0261d-5c7f-4589-a0ec-c8879c09b7c2/files/sa024-assessment-program-report.pdf
[9] Riverview (April 2017) EPBC Consultation report West Belconnen Conservation Corridor, https://ginninderry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EPBC-Strategic-Assessment-Consultation-Report-Final-2017-7mb.pdf, pdf p. 67
[10] Riverview n 8 (endorsed Program Report), p. 34
[11] DCCEEW (2024) Variation of approval for the taking of actions in accordance with an endorsed program under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth). https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/sa024-variation-of-approval.pdf
[12] DCCEEW n 11, p. 3
[13] NSW Department of Planning,
Housing and Infrastructure (2025) Gateway determination report –
PP-2025-610, Wallaroo Road, Wallaroo,
https://apps.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/prweb/PRRestService/DocMgmt/v1/PublicDocuments/DATA-WORKATTACH-FILE%20PEC-DPE-EP-WORK%20PP-2025-610!20250810T234029.458%20GMT,
p. 6
[14] Yass Valley Council (2025) Reports to the Council’s Ordinary Council Meeting held on 23 June 2025, Item 6.6 Planning Proposal - Lot 2 DP1144979 Wallaroo Road, Wallaroo, https://www.yassvalley.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/our-council/public-consultation/co_23062025_sr_956_7_pp-2025-610.pdf, p. 1
[15] Riverview n 2, p. 11
[16] Riverview n 8, Action 3 in Table 2, pp. 44-45, which should be read with DCCEEW n 11, condition 7
[17] DCCEEW n 11, p. 10, underline added.
[18] Riverview (2024) Annual Report 2023-2024 Ginninderry Project, https://ginninderry.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/EPBC-Annual-Report-2023-2024.pdf, p. 20, underline added