Agricultural Lands Strategy

In 2012, Council engaged GHD to complete the Narromine Agricultural Lands Strategy which was split into two documents, being the Intensive Agriculture Strategy and the Rural Residential Strategy.

In 2018, the Rural Residential Strategy was updated and replaced by a new strategy to include both Residential and Rural Residential land uses, prioritising land into short, medium and long term for future residential development. Please refer to the Residential and Large Lot Residential Land Use Strategy.

Intensive Plant Agriculture Strategy

The Intensive Agriculture Strategy had two main objectives; being

• Identify and protect existing land utilised for intensive plant agriculture; and
• Identify any additional land appropriate for intensive plant agriculture.
• Intensive plant agriculture is defined under the LEP as:
  1. the cultivation of irrigated crops for commercial purposes (other than irrigated pasture or fodder crops),
  2. horticulture,
  3. turf farming,
  4. viticulture.

A number of factors were assessed to determine which lands were appropriate for future intensive plant agriculture, including soils, water allocations and availability, farm sizes, climate and capability balanced with environmental sensitivities such as contamination and biodiversity.

This Strategy was completed in 2013 and since this time, Council has inserted a new clause in the Narromine LEP which allows intensive agriculture developments in certain areas within the RU1 Primary Production zone. This has allowed Council’s rural zoned land to be given a new method of allowing a more varied agricultural base and providing guidance with regard to sustainable operations, buffering and limiting land use conflict.

Click on the link below to open this Strategy