The comments were made by Boydtown Pty Ltd managing director Bruce Lyon at a public meeting on Wednesday night to more than 40 local land owners.

Mr Lyon said Cr Kristy McBain would begin a process of winding back a lot of the environmental zones that had been imposed on land owners following a meeting between the pair.

“The mayor will withdraw all E zones that have not been gazetted in good faith,” Mr Lyon told the audience.

Despite what Mr Lyon described as a “fruitful” meeting, Cr Kristy McBain said nothing was mentioned about raising the issue at the next council meeting – contrary to Mr Lyon’s assertion.

“I offered to Bruce for him to put together a working party from the meeting,” Cr McBain said.

“One thing I did stress to Bruce was that council wants to work with people so that they get the best outcomes for land they own within the planning framework that we have.

“We are more than happy to have open conversation and dialogue with whomever requires it.”

The public meeting focused on the rezoning of land in the Bega Valley, particularly E zoning classifications.

Speakers comprised Mr Lyon, Boydtown Pty Ltd director Mike Milliken, Harris Freidman Lawyers director Scott Freidman and Eden Realty’s Glenn Brunette.

Mr Milliken said last year council converted 13 properties, or about 400ha, of farming land into environmental zoning.

“No justification was given by council,” he said.

“Council needs to work with the local people. They should consult with the local people.”

Council general manager Leanne Barnes said there was extensive community consultation leading up to the Local Environmental Plan 2013.

“The strongest thing I want to say is there were no wholesale changes from the 2002 to 2013 LEPs,” Ms Barnes said.

“Properties were moved into the closest zone under the new NSW Government template.

“Should individual landowners have a concern about the history that happened with their property they can get in contact with council, as a number of them have.”

Mr Freidman said the rate of E zoning in the Bega Valley stood in contrast to the NSW Government’s South Coast Regional Strategy 2006-31, while Mr Brunette said E zoning was about taking away rights.

The meeting evolved into an open forum, where residents voiced their personal experiences with rezoning.

A Towamaba land owner said she was told by a local real estate agent last week that her land had been rezoned and was “basically worthless”.

“The last quote I got on it was between $180,000 to $200,000 about three to four years ago,” she said.

“Now I’ll be lucky to get $20,000. Who’s going to buy it if they can’t do anything with 13 acres?

“I would have got a DA (development application) sooner if I’d known it would be rezoned.”

The distress in the room stemmed from people feeling they had not been consulted by council about their land being rezoned.

“Hearing people say there’s been a lack of consultation is alarming and obviously something we want to get right,” Cr Kristy McBain said.

“We want to know what their needs are when it comes to dealing with their land, be it their livelihood or their retirement or their parcel they call their own.”

One Bega resident took issue with council’s LEP, which under section 42a states a development must not be granted for the erection of a dwelling on land unless the land was an existing holding on January 7, 1966 among other exceptions.

She discovered she could not build on the land after a potential buyer inquired about purchasing her property.

“Prior to the inquiry we had put power on the land costing $80,000, a septic system authorised by council and inspected by the council and the infrastructure that goes with it,” she said.

“The (potential buyer) went to council and had been informed that no building application could be applied for under the criteria.

“It just so happened we had all the paper work from when we’d purchased the property more than 20 years ago, which said there were concrete foundations there and because of that we could still build.

“The council should have had that paperwork, otherwise who knows how much value we would have lost on the property?”

Residents travelled as far as Kiah and Cobargo to express their frustration with rezoning at the meeting, with another meeting to be scheduled later in September.

Mr Lyon will again meet with Cr Kristy McBain and Ms Barnes on Friday, September 1.