Last week's meeting of the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council saw the adoption of the Cootamundra 2050 strategy after having been placed on public exhibition for four weeks.
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However the rural lands strategy was knocked back by councillors to allow for further discussion about the reduction of the minimum size of Rural Use 1-zoned farming properties from 200 to 40 hectares.
Councillor Charlie Sheahan said he was "pretty concerned" that the 40ha minimum lot size around Cootamundra was not mentioned in the draft strategy document, despite it having been discussed by councillors in workshops.
"I think the future development of our whole local government depends on it," he said.
"By reducing our minimum lot size we are protecting the diversity in the agriculture we have in our region, because we are opening the marketplace up for people to be able to purchase holdings of 40ha.
"Forty hectares is 100 acres, which is quite a sizeable block of land but small enough to protect it from corporate takeover.
"I think the 40 ha size should be stated in the strategy so that the wider community understands where this council is trying to take the future of the region."
Cr Sheahan proposed that the document be "left to lay on the table", and councillors voted unanimously that the policy not be adopted to allow for further discussion.
It was left unclear whether an amended document would go back for further public exhibition.
Asked why the 40ha size, which already applies around Gundagai, had not been included in the document, council's manager of development, building and compliance, Sharon Langman, said it was because State government agencies were concerned that the "necessary supporting studies" had not been done to go with rezoning parcels of land.
"Based on agency feedback, I believe there's some additional work needs to be done before we put that 40ha minimum into a document," she said.
"They would like us to do additional flood studies for the lower reaches of Muttuma Creek and further mapping on biodiversity and natural vegetation areas."
Public exhibition of the 2050 Strategy resulted in three submissions being made, which will be incorporated into the local strategic planning statement currently being developed.
The submissions included a call for more promotion of Cootamundra's unique location, with its good train connectivity, and for promotion of the availability of vacant NSW government office space, as well as incentives for maintenance of vacant buildings in the CBD.
