The 1095-hectare Kings Forest site is located near Kingscliff on the Far North Coast of NSW.
It contains large areas of native vegetation and fauna habitat, including wetlands and koala habitat. Portions of the site have also been cleared for agriculture and forestry.
For the last 20 years, there has been extensive community debate about the site’s future.
In March 2006, the NSW Department of Planning commenced investigations into whether the site should be declared State Significant.
A State Significant site study was prepared and publicly exhibited between April and May 2006. In November 2006, a new planning regime was created for the site through an amendment to State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005.
Under the gazetted planning regime, more than one third of the site – 373.93 hectares - will be zoned for environmental protection.
This is almost double the area zoned environmental protection under the Tweed local environmental plan (LEP). It is also a higher amount of environmental protection land, compared to recent proposed LEP amendments.
Environmental protection zoning will conserve areas of endangered ecological communities, including freshwater coastal wetlands and koala habitat; and will assist in providing wildlife corridors south to the Cudgen Paddock. Photographs of endangered ecological communities to be conserved under the SEPP amendment are available below:
The new zonings will allow for a residential development which will include new retail and office space, schools, libraries and emergency services.
A map which displays the new zones is available here.
The site's planning controls are available in Schedule 3 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) 2005, available here.