Yass Valley Council has released a new plan outlining where roads, community facilities, pathways and open spaces, worth about $12 million, will be built in the next 20 years.

This plan will be reviewed every five years.

It’s called the Yass Valley Development Contributions Plan 2018, on public exhibition until February, giving locals a chance to have a say on what future infrastructure in the shire should look like.

Mentioned in the plan are:

“Yass Valley is experiencing increased development and with an increasing population comes demand for more or improved infrastructure,” said mayor Rowena Abbey.

Also under the plan is a new set of fees for developers that will fund the infrastructure schedule and help spread development further across the shire.

The development fees include:

“The previous plans dictated that money had to be spent where the development occurred,” a council spokesperson said.

This meant “less populated villages, such as Bookham, which only has small amounts of development, had a small bucket of money available for infrastructure projects.”

Yass Valley Council director of planning Chris Berry said the idea behind the overhaul was to “simplify the contributions plans to ultimately make it a simpler process for residents considering development and also for staff who have to undertake the administration that sits behind these plans. 

“These plans are currently in draft form and now is the time for residents to submit their comments in writing, so they can be involved in shaping the documents for the future,” Mr Berry said.