Sitting in my hotel room on the 39th floor of a Manhattan high-rise, provides me with a reasonable perspective of what the Central Coast Council believes are appropriate building heights for Gosford’s CBD.
The Council’s planning proposal, massaged by developer interests, would forever alter Gosford’s skyline with buildings around 100 metres high. Quietly pushing the exhibition period through in the weeks leading up to Christmas demonstrates the Council’s hollow promises of better consultation with the community on signifi cant planning decisions [note, the exhibition period has been extended to January 20, Editor]. The only real community consultation conducted on building heights, with over 55,000 community members, found that residents wanted buildings of less than 14 storeys.
Since that time, the Council has buried the survey and avoided any further serious consultations with the broader community, despite the relatively low costs of conducting followup surveys. I urge all residents to let the Coast Administrator, who is the sole individual making the fi nal determination on Gosford’s building heights and excessive densities, know how you feel about the prospect of Gosford becoming a New York style urban landscape.
Email, Dec 16, 2016 Tahir Turk, Gosford