Our readers may recall from our January eBulletin that Shelter NSW had been invited to present to the Independent Planning Commission on the case of Byron Shire Council’s Planning Proposal to regulate “short term rental accommodation” or “STRA” to a lower, non-hosted cap of 90 days per year in parts of the LGA. This case is exceptionally important as it will likely have a chilling (or warming) effect on local Councils pursuing non-hosted STRA regulation below the State-default cap of 180 days per year in the Housing SEPP legislation.

The ability for local Councils to strike the right balance between accommodation for tourists and housing for locals is a key feature of our State Election Platform of asks. This is a chronic issue in the North Coast, but increasingly an issue for South Coast LGAs.

So, present we did! You can find transcripts from our various presentations to the IPC here. Also, watch here from 3:57:00 of the Live Broadcast from Tuesday 21 February Hearing. Naturally, we included a slight dig at the terminology employed in the NSW Planning system of “short term rental accommodation”:

Our commentary was compiled in a written supplementary submission to the IPC which was submitted earlier today. You can read it here.