“Why do all the shops in town close? Why do restaurants not come here? Well, they don’t come if you don’t have foot traffic and, right now, our foot traffic is not in our town centres; it’s on the beaches and in the little suburbs around them. So we’ve got to start giving people that option and making the place more liveable,” Hatcher said.

The other motivator for Hatcher is to give the community, via the council, control of how increased density happens – and to woo developers with density friendly planning controls.

“This is about a sort of 80- to 100-year vision, and saying let us dictate what it’s going to be like, rather than us trying to stop everything and then the state government coming in, like we’ve seen in the [Sydney] CBD, and telling you what you’re going to get,” he said.

“We’ve got to get our house in order to make sure we are ready for what’s coming and that the state isn’t going to impose it on us.”

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According to the strategy, 27 per cent of housing in the council area is owned by absentee landowners and Eurobodalla’s population increases by as many as 120,000 during peak holiday periods.

Hatcher said the high number of holiday homes and Airbnbs in the area made it harder to free up affordable housing – so much so that he previously wrote to non-resident ratepayers to beg them to rent out their holiday homes to locals.

However, not everyone agrees with the draft master plan. During a debate, councillors found the proposed 100-metre building heights too much to swallow – given the greatest allowable height currently is just 18 metres.

Councillor Colleen Turner said the draft plan was “more Gold Coast than Noosa”.

“To put out to consultation a master plan that has many, many references to 100 metres as the potential highest building is an unnecessary lure for developers,” she said at a March council meeting.

Councillor Anthony Maine said the plan was “overambitious”. “I don’t welcome it [Batemans Bay] becoming a developers’ delight,” he said.

Councillor Sharon Winslade said she found it difficult to imagine driving into a town flanked by two “masculine” towers.

The community now has the chance to provide feedback on the draft masterplan. The council has conceded that the maximum height could be lowered in future drafts if the community protests. The council intends to also develop plans for Moruya and Narooma.

While the draft plan looks forward to the next few decades, Eurobodalla needs to find more housing ahead of a new community health facility opening in 2026, which is set to bring more health workers into the area.

The Bega Valley Shire Council, which includes coastal hamlets Eden and Merimbula, is also attempting to tackle the housing crisis by forcing developers to contribute to affordable housing when land is rezoned for residential development.

Developers could meet the requirement by providing land, completed dwellings or a direct payment to council.

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