News from the Council meeting - 30 October 2023

News from the Council meeting - 30 October 2023

Published on 30 October 2023

2024-25 Budget Development Process – Community Consultation

The City of Hobart’s budget process will be open for community consultation.

The Hobart community will have the opportunity to put forward suggestions for consideration for the 2024-25 budget.

The consultation period will be open for four weeks during November 2023. The City will assess the community budget submissions against the City’s strategic priorities and financial capacity.

Mount Nelson and Sandy Bay Neighbourhood Plan – Discussion Paper

The Hobart City Council has endorsed the Mount Nelson and Sandy Bay Neighbourhood Plan discussion paper for community and stakeholder consultation.

The objectives of the Neighbourhood Plan are to identify opportunities for residential development and activation of commercial and retail areas; respond to the risks of climate change including bushfire, flooding, coastal erosion, and inundation; identify opportunities to improve sustainable transport options; protect areas of significant biodiversity value; and improve the use of public open space and connect the coastal and mountain environment.

Fire Management Policy

With summer fast approaching, the Hobart City Council has endorsed the draft Fire Management that sets out the approach the City of Hobart takes to fire management on council managed land.

Hobart is the most bushfire prone city in Australia and the City of Hobart managed 4600ha of bushland.

The City commits about $1.8 million per year to fire management with the Fire and Biodiversity Program maintaining a burn crew of 30 people made up of staff from across the organisation.

Property Valuation Base for Council Rating – Proposal for Change

The City of Hobart will change the method of property valuation it uses for calculating council rates from Assessed Annual Value to Capital Value.

The community benefit is that Capital Value performs best of all the valuation bases, and better in comparison to Assessed Annual Value, against the principles of taxation.

It is also deemed to be easier to understand, more sustainable, most equitable particularly in terms of capacity to pay, and the least volatile in a property market where property values are growing at a different rate to rental values.

It is also considered that a move to Capital Value best meets Council’s strategy for its rating system.

The community benefit is also consistent with the strategy in the City of Hobart Capital City Strategic Plan 2019-2029 outlined in section 8 of this report to ‘maintain a rating system that supports fairness, capacity to pay and effectiveness.

The change was endorsed by the Hobart City Council.

Petition Response – A Safe and Continuous Pedestrian Link for Strickland Avenue from Cascade Silos to the intersection of Marlyn Road

The Hobart City Council has noted the concerns raised in the petition.

The work undertaken to date on the School Active Travel Plans for South Hobart Primary School specifically the project to undertake feasibility of pedestrian improvements and parking management on Strickland Avenue, so far as the area between Cascade Silos and Marlyn Avenue was also noted to be progressed.

Additionally, it was agreed that Council officers provide administrative support to any community grant applications out forward from the community relating to this matter.

Plastic in the Hobart Rivulet

In a motion from the floor, the Hobart City Council has approved seeking a report into waste found in the Hobart Rivulet following the weather event on Saturday, October 21.

Details are currently being sought on the steps taken at McRobies Waste Management Centre by council operations in the lead up to the weather event, the amount of plastic and other waste that made its way into the rivulet, what improvements can be made to council infrastructure and procedures to reduce impact, arrangements for post weather event clean ups, promotion and expanded use of wheelie bin latches, and an investigation into cancelling recycling and general waste collection on day of predicted weather events.