Batemans Bay's revised masterplan will not include the 100m height limit. The survey on what comes instead closes Sunday 11 October.

If you live in or around Batemans Bay, the short version is this: the ceiling that dominated last year's argument has gone, and the question now is where the extra housing should go. Eurobodalla Shire Council's project page says it plainly: The revised masterplan will not include the proposed 100m height limit. (Revised Batemans Bay Masterplan). The council's Our Eurobodalla page asks for your thoughts on housing options for the town centre, transport, heritage, the waterfront and ways to revitalise the town, and its survey closes on Sunday 11 October 2026.

The three options

In place of the height limit, the council's project page lists three ways the town could grow:

• Town centre density: Higher density in the town centre, but less than outlined in the draft masterplan.
• Medium density throughout: Allow small increases in height and density across the entire study area, such as six storeys.
• Around the town density: Keep the existing height limit in the town centre but build around the town fringe areas. This allows more housing within easy walking distance to town.

The study area runs from the town centre on the south side of the Clyde, including Smoke Point, along Beach Road to Batehaven and up the Princes Highway to the industrial estate off Cranbrook Road, according to the project plan councillors endorsed in June. None of the three options has a number of homes attached in the documents we read.

Two things in that plan are worth weighing before you answer. The first is why the council wants more density at all. The plan says Preliminary feedback from the building industry indicates that development under the current planning controls is not financially feasible. (page 4). That is the council's reading of industry feedback, not a published study, but it is the test the third option will face: it keeps the town centre's existing height limit, so whatever new housing it delivers has to come from the fringe. The plan says meetings are being initiated with developers and real estate agents to determine feasibility and viability of new and more diverse housing stock, as this will be required in every scenario (page 11).

The second is flooding. The same page says early information from the flood impact and risk assessment has prompted internal discussion about roads, stormwater, water and sewer, and that This will be a key dependency in what is possible regarding the development and densification of the town centre. The project page says that assessment is nearly complete. In other words, the town centre option may be shaped as much by what the flood work finds as by what the survey says.

Why the draft was pulled back

The draft masterplan was on exhibition from 14 April to 30 June 2025. The council's project page counts 246 submissions; the project plan counts 254 written submissions and 75 image submissions. The draft set its height bands in 20 metre steps, the highest being 80 to 100 metres, and it said This plan aims to guide the town's growth to 40,000 residents by 2100. (draft masterplan). The project page lists the three issues people raised most: height, population and growth, and climate change and flood risk.

The council then commissioned a probity review from the firm Centium, engaged on 18 August 2025, to look at how the draft was made. Its final report, dated February 2026, put numbers on the population question. It said the 40,000 target starts from an estimated 8,653 residents in 2024 in the Batemans Bay statistical area and implies growth of 2.06 per cent a year, while the annual growth rate over the past five years has been under 0.9% (probity report, pages 11 and 12). Our check: growing from 8,653 to 40,000 over the 76 years from 2024 to 2100 is about 2.0 per cent a year, close to the report's figure. Its finding: Estimated resident population projections are not supported by past experience and also by general overall trends observed Australia-wide.

The report's other findings went to the plan's foundations. It found the draft's 75 year horizon extremely long against the 25 to 30 years typical of masterplans (page 12), and on page 14 that the draft had not considered any potential future limitations on current infrastructure (water, sewerage, power, telecommunications etc) or the impact of climate change and coastal erosion (page 14). It also looked at the council's dual role as landowner and planning authority over the former bowling club site at 2 Vesper Street, which the council removed from the masterplan area in November 2025; the report found the council's potential conflict of interest satisfactorily resolved by that step (page 16). The site stays out of scope in the new project plan.

What councillors decided, and the votes

At an extraordinary meeting on 10 March 2026 councillors noted the probity findings, adopted a 25 to 30 year planning horizon for the revised plan, and resolved to Commit to public exhibition of the revised BBMP before consideration of its adoption. (resolution 26/20). The vote was 5 to 3: Councillors Constable, Hatcher, Johnson, Pollock and Schutz for, Councillors Mayne, Turner and Winslade against. On 30 June, all eight councillors present endorsed the project plan and allocated an additional budget of up to $85,000 for scoping water and sewer capacity and appointing a panel of experts (resolution 26/85).

On cost, the project page lists $350,000 total: $200,000 from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure and $150,000 from the council. The project plan gives a wider figure: Throughout the three (3) financial years from 23-24, total expenditure is $732,310. (page 15). The $85,000 sits on top.

What happens after Sunday

December is the next decision point, but it is not the last one. The council's main project page says the revised plan goes to the December ordinary meeting for endorsement for public exhibition. Its Our Eurobodalla page says December is for adoption. The March resolution settles which: exhibition first, then a decision on adoption. A report to the 29 September meeting says It is proposed to present a revised draft masterplan to the December Council meeting. (agenda, page 8).

The project plan's schedule, which is a plan rather than a promise, has public exhibition from 15 January to 26 February 2027. The timing is pushed by money: the plan says Planning Proposal funding from Department of Planning requires dispersal by Dec 2026 and gives 24 December 2026 for submitting the revised draft and the planning proposal to the Department (page 7). The same September report says preparing a planning proposal to amend the local environmental plan is dependent upon the revised Batemans Bay Masterplan being adopted by Council (agenda, page 9). Those two documents describe the order of steps differently, and we have not asked the council how they fit together.

So if you want a say on whether Batemans Bay grows up in the middle, a little everywhere, or out around the edges, this survey is the open door until Sunday 11 October, and the exhibition planned for early 2027 is the next one.