FAQs

About the project

We've gathered the questions we're most often asked, with straightforward answers. If yours isn't here, you're welcome to get in touch.

  • Gulgan Village is a proposal to plan a new residential village on rural land at 66 and 132 The Saddle Road, between Brunswick Heads and Mullumbimby. It would provide 400 to 550 homes of varied types and prices, set within a largely retained natural landscape, alongside the adjoining BILS Area 5 employment land. Three documents — a Planning Proposal, a Development Control Plan and a Voluntary Planning Agreement — are on public exhibition now.

  • The land is privately owned, with Byron-based Creative Capital appointed as development manager and lead proponent. Creative Capital has a track record of community-minded projects in the Shire, and authored New Old Ways, a framework for place-based development that shaped the thinking behind the village. A full team of specialist consultants — planning, urban design, engineering, ecology, bushfire, heritage and more — has prepared the proposal.

  • On The Saddle Road in the north of Byron Shire, on elevated, flood-free land directly west of the Pacific Motorway (M1) — about 6 minutes from Brunswick Heads, 9 from Mullumbimby and 16 from Byron Bay. It sits immediately north-west of BILS Area 5, the recently approved employment precinct.

  • This is the public exhibition stage. The Planning Proposal, DCP and VPA are open for the community to read and respond to until 12 July 2026. After that, Council considers the submissions and decides whether to finalise the change to the planning rules. No building is being approved at this stage.

The Planning Proposal

  • It's the formal first step in changing the planning rules for a piece of land. What can be built on a site is set by Council's Local Environmental Plan (LEP); to do something the current rules don't allow, you have to ask for the LEP to be amended. This proposal asks to rezone the rural land so a village can be planned there. Find out more here.

  • No. Rezoning only changes the rules — the zones, heights, density and controls. It does not approve any homes, streets or stages. If the rezoning is approved, the land would still need separate Development Applications — starting with subdivision, then the buildings themselves — each assessed by Council, with further chances for the community to have a say.

  • It would rezone rural land to a mix of residential and conservation zones — about 37.9 hectares of it residential; set a building height of 11.5 m and a floor space ratio of 0.9:1 on the residential land; remove the minimum lot size so smaller, varied homes are possible; allow everyday village uses like shops and cafés; and set a binding limit of 400 to 550 homes. It would also allow manufactured-home estates while keeping caravan parks prohibited.

  • The land has already been identified as suitable for housing by both Byron Shire Council, through its Residential Strategy 2041, and the NSW Government, through the Northern Rivers Resilient Lands Strategy — a response to the 2022 floods that prioritises flood-free land near towns. The site is cleared, flood-free, well-located and next to employment land, which is an uncommon combination in the Shire.

  • Between 400 and 550. That range is a binding control in the proposal — at least 400 to make the village and its infrastructure viable, and no more than 550 to suit the capacity of the land. The exact number is settled later, through detailed design.

  • A genuine mix: detached homes, terraces and row housing, low-rise apartments, larger family lots, co-housing, manufactured homes and compact "micro-lots", across a range of ownership types. The aim is to suit the people the Shire struggles to house — essential workers, young families, downsizers and locals priced out of the market.

  • No. It's been planned as a village rather than a conventional estate — shaped around the landscape, structured into precincts, integrated with nearby employment land, and held together over time by a single Community Title scheme and a detailed Development Control Plan. The mix of housing, the retained open space and the walkable layout are built into the rules, not left to chance.

The Development Control Plan (DCP)

  • If the LEP decides what can be built, the Development Control Plan decides how. It sets the practical detail — street layout, lot sizes and mix, building envelopes, landscape, drainage, bushfire protection and staging. Gulgan Village has its own chapter (Chapter E12), written specifically for the site. Find out more here.

  • The character and quality of the village: how buildings sit in the landscape, the street and movement network, open space and tree canopy, environmental and stormwater management, bushfire and noise protection, the small village centre, and how the village is subdivided and governed over the long term.

  • Yes — that's much of its purpose. Building envelopes, height and setback controls, landscape and canopy requirements and design standards give Council the basis to refuse proposals that don't meet them. The controls are also locked into the village's Community Title, so they keep applying over time.

The site, environment, traffic + access

  • No. Independent assessment found the land is poor-quality grazing land — around 72% in the lowest agricultural class, with shallow, erosive soils. Rezoning it will not meaningfully affect the region's agricultural production.

  • The site's ecological values were mapped in detail and the village designed around them. Development is concentrated on land already cleared for grazing; established trees and bushland are retained almost entirely; and the proposal commits to revegetation and habitat restoration. Threatened plants are to be retained, and no koalas were found on the site, though they live in the wider area.

  • Independent assessment places the site in an area of reduced bushfire risk. The required protection measures — asset-protection zones, access and construction standards — are achievable and meet the NSW Planning for Bushfire Protection 2019 standard, and are resolved in detail at the subdivision stage.

  • The site is elevated and flood-free — above the 1% annual flood level and outside the probable maximum flood area, which is part of why it was identified for housing. Stormwater would be held and treated on site so that run-off doesn't worsen downstream, using water-sensitive design.

  • Noise from the M1 has been modelled. Homes closer to the motorway would be laid out and built to meet internal comfort standards through siting, orientation and construction — so amenity is achieved by design rather than large barriers.

  • It will be visible from some nearby vantage points, but assessment found it imperceptible from iconic distant views such as Cape Byron. Building heights step with the land, tree canopy is retained and extended, and key views are protected — so the village is designed to sit within the local character rather than dominate it.

  • Walking and cycling come first. The Saddle Road becomes a green spine of paths through the village, streets are designed to be slow and safe, and the layout is planned so most homes are within a short walk of a future bus stop. Car-share and electric-vehicle charging are built into the controls.

Housing, affordability + community benefits

  • Byron Shire Council runs an Affordable Housing Contribution Scheme, which asks new development to contribute homes for people on very low, low and moderate incomes. Under the Voluntary Planning Agreement, Gulgan Village commits 5%, provided as serviced residential land or built homes and managed as affordable housing by Council or a community housing provider. A further 5% will also be provided directly to the Bundjalung of Byron Bay (Arakwal) Aboriginal Corporation to support housing on Country — a separate, agreed commitment that sits outside the Scheme.

    In addition to the above, 2 hectares of land has been dedicated in perpetuity to the not-for-profit entity Byron Shire Community Housing, for the development of group homes for women and children. Learn more here.

  • Through the Voluntary Planning Agreement, the developer commits to deliver water and sewer infrastructure (including a sewer pump station), a dual-lane roundabout on Gulgan Road and the Bashforths Lane intersection, and to dedicate land to Council for a new water reservoir. These works are delivered as the village is built.

Having your say, and what happens next

  • Right now. While the Planning Proposal, DCP and VPA are on exhibition (until 12 July 2026), anyone can make a submission to Council. You're also welcome to contact us directly with a question or to arrange a chat. There will be further opportunities to comment at later development stages too.

  • Council collects and considers all submissions, then decides whether to finalise the change to the planning rules. If supported, the amended LEP is made and the planning framework — the LEP, the DCP and the VPA — is in place. That sets the rules; it still doesn't approve any building.

  • In order: the planning rules are finalised; then a subdivision Development Application is lodged and assessed, followed by construction certificates and the civil works that create the lots; then Development Applications for the actual buildings, stage by stage, each with its own approvals and construction. It's a staged, multi-year process, with assessment and public input along the way.

  • Nothing immediately. Approval changes the planning rules — it doesn't move any earth. Building only follows later, through the separate, staged approvals above, each assessed against the new rules.