At last night’s planning authority meeting (21/3/2022), a rarely used word appeared in the agenda item (page 70) concerning the rezoning of property in Austins Ferry (PLS43A-21/03).

The word was “sterilise”. A word we associate with hand sanitizer. A word we use in relation to creatures unable to reproduce.

Let me give some context.

The application on the GPA agenda requested in part the rezoning of a land parcel from Rural Living (Zone A) to General Residential to allow a subdivision and residential development to take place. The major effect is to reduce the minimum lot size from one hectare (10,000 square metres) down to 450 square metres.

On the face of it, this seems an uncontroversial move until you learn that land on Whitestone Drive just over the hill is zoned Light Industrial.

General Residential and Light Industrial can make unhappy bedfellows – the peace and quiet preferred at home versus the noisier environment of industry. At times the relationship between residents and the nearby light industry was fraught to say the least.

Before this application, the method used to minimize potential conflict was to insert a ten metre wide strip of land zoned Open Space between the two zones. That Open Space has disappeared from the new SAP (Specific Area Plan) proposed to regulate development.

Council in the agenda argued that the previous application of the Open Space Zone would effectively “sterilise the use of the land”. And that, they say, would be a bad thing.

So what does that mean?

In general we would probably agree that the word “sterilise” means “to make sterile” but that begs the question “what does ‘sterile’ mean?”.

In our day to day conversation can mean a few things.

When referring to a person, to be sterile means “unable to have children”.

When referring to medical equipment, to be sterile means “free from living germs or microorganisms”.

When a farmer describes land as sterile, they mean “nothing will grow on that land”.

In land use management it has a more general definition. Land will be sterile with regard to various uses. There may be only one use impossible on that land or a variety of uses.

Here are some examples mentioning a broad-based sterility.

• The Melbourne City Council in a planning document describes an inner-city precinct as “at risk of being sterilised by institutions. This growth needs to be balanced with a range of other uses that provide activity over a 24-hour period to create a lively and integrated knowledge precinct.”
• In Western Australia, the explanatory memorandum for a piece of legislation states one of its purposes as – “Clarify the capacity of a responsible authority to acquire or purchase zoned land to avoid sterilisation of development potential.”
• A report from a Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry wrote:
  “The removal of buildings from the flood affected area, coupled with a moratorium on any new development, can amount to ‘sterilisation’ of the land.”

Here are a couple of references describing sterilization for a single use.

• In a Tasmanian example relating to Rural and Agricultural zones we read about “reducing setbacks for agricultural buildings such as sheds to ensure that land is not sterilised by the need to put a shed in the middle of a paddock.”
• Here is an example showing sterility with regard to residential development. In New South Wales in 2021 after their major floods, the government gave “councils the power to refuse development occurring on land above the previously prescribed one-in-100 year floodline”. That was described at the time as “effectively sterilis[ing] land from residential use” (Sydney Morning Herald May 29, 2021).

Some sterilisation may result from a previous use of the land. Here is an example from the Department of Mines in Western Australia which is clearly concerned that subdivision and residential development may block any exploitation of mineral resources. They write in a planning document that it is important to avoid “unnecessary sterilisation of mineral and energy resources from incompatible land uses, such as subdivision and development proposals”.

Some forms of sterilisation are more permanent than others. Some may be reversed simply by rezoning the land.

The Essex County Council in the UK in their planning policy for minerals development helpfully defines “sterilisation” as “the term used when development or land-use changes take place which permanently prevent the extraction of mineral resources from the ground.”

In a planning document from the Moray Council in the UK we read :-
“the development must not sterilise significant workable reserves of minerals, prime quality agricultural land, or preferred areas for forestry planting.”

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I hope you found that brief explanation interesting, for a word that most of us would think had no place in land use planning conversations.