New laws passed by the NSW Government have stripped elected councils of decision-making power over major development, and Byron Shire Mayor Sarah Ndiaye said most of the community has no idea it's happened.
Since November 2025, the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) has been enshrined in law through amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
The changes give the HDA broad powers to direct amendments to council planning instruments and allow the Planning Minister to declare major projects State Significant Development (SSD), removing them from council assessment altogether.
At the August Council meeting, Councillors raised serious concerns about the growing number of major developments bypassing local decision-making in Byron Shire.
Proposals like 70 units at 11 Butler Street, 140 units at 148-158 Jonson Street, Byron Bay, and 60 units at 90-96 Jonson Street are progressing through the HDA and SSD pathways, not through Council.
"This matters. These pathways remove the ability of elected Councillors to assess and determine what happens in our own community and to have that debate in a public forum," Byron Shire Mayor, Sarah Ndiaye, said.
Council has requested a report from staff on what this means for local planning controls, environmental protections, affordable housing outcomes and community engagement, and what options exist to respond or seek an exemption.
"Our Local Environmental Plans and Development Control Plans set the rules for height, density, parking and design across the Shire.
"They're built with community input and reflect what residents want their towns and villages to look like.
"Our height limits are capped because we don't want high-rise development. We don't want the streetscape of places like Byron Bay changed forever, at the cost of the community that shaped it.
"The Minister has said councils will still have a say through their strategic planning documents. But under these changes, he also has the power to override them entirely.
"Byron Shire has delivered on every dwelling target the State has set for us. We are not the problem. We're asking the State to keep working with us and our community on planning outcomes that work.
"None of this was taken to an election. Most people here have no idea these powers have shifted away from their elected representatives.
"We understand the housing crisis; we live it too.
"But a $1.5 to $3.5 million apartment in the centre of Byron Bay will not deliver the housing our workers and families need, especially when it sits inside a zone that permits 365 days a year of short-term holiday letting.
"We will keep pushing for a planning system that keeps decisions about Byron Shire in the hands of the people who live here.
"I am deeply concerned, because poor planning decisions last for decades. They can permanently damage the very thing that draws people to this Shire," Mayor Ndiaye said.
