Gosford CBD has 18,000 units or flats already approved for building, Administrator Rik Hart told the February meeting of Council-under-administration.
Hart gave the figures as he was adopting a report Central Coast Council is submitting to the State Government about proposed changes to zonings around transport hubs to allow more housing close to transport.
The State program is called Transport Oriented Development or TOD.
Council wants Gosford, Tuggerah, and Wyong TOD locations, around the train stations, excluded from the future reforms due to low opportunity for housing yield, limited land application for the provisions and the existing approval frameworks in place that have a more locally based strategic direction for these centres.
Council argues in its submission that proposed changes applying to Gosford, Tuggerah, and Wyong are unlikely to generate any significant increase in housing to warrant the complications of creating new policy layers.
But if they are included, it wants location definitions and criteria of where the provisions will apply to be specific, clearly interpreted and unchallengeable in Court.
Council says the instrument should include mapping but where this is not provided, the definition of “walking distance” should be clearly articulated so it doesn’t create ambiguity.
Council has also submitted its thoughts on the proposed Low and Mid-rise Housing Reform (LMRH Reform).
The LMRH would broaden the inclusion of land uses across all Residential and limited Employment zones (E1 Local Centre and MU1 Mixed Use only) to allow increased permissibility of medium density style developments.
This would permit multi-dwelling housing and manor houses in the R2 Low Density Residential zone within the station and town centre precincts.
Manor houses are defined as two-storey residential flat buildings, described as a small apartment building, which are currently not permitted in the Central Coast Local Government Area.
It would also introduce standalone controls to vary the requirements of the Apartment Design Guide to include design criteria for mid-rise housing, such as building separation, setbacks, vehicle access, visual privacy and communal open space.
Council staff expect these controls would be less onerous than the Coast’s current Development Control Plan controls.
“The concept of increasing residential densities in existing centres is generally supported; however, this needs to be driven by evidence-based actions alongside infrastructure delivery,” Council said.
“The proposed ‘cookie cutter’ approach taken across the Six Cities Region has the potential to undermine the strategic work undertaken through the Central Coast Regional Plan 2041 (CCRP 2041) and Council’s draft Central Coast Local Housing Strategy.”
The LMRH seeks to speed up the delivery of a greater diversity of housing stock in the medium density bracket targeting the TOD areas while the TOD would give a new State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP).
The SEPP is due to come into force in April 2024 and will amend planning controls within 400m of 31 metro and rail stations including – at this stage – Gosford, Tuggerah and Wyong stations.
Council said the TOD SEPP and LMRH Reforms are happening faster than Council can amend local infrastructure contribution plans.
Merilyn Vale
It’d be great if Council consulted with those who pay rates before making submissions on “our” behalf.
I’m sure there’s plenty of people against these proposal, but I for one, am all for it. I DO want Wyong, and Tuggerah included.
Gosford already has plenty of growth (at least when the companies building the massive towers don’t collapse.) We need more growth up the northern end of the coast. So sick of seeing Gosford and the southern end benefit more and more since the old Wyong council effectively bailed them out during the amalgamation.
So the reason for all the frenetic high rise building in Gosford is to satisfy the State’s Transport Oriented Development plan “TOD”. Is there ANY other reason to live in what I see as an old fossilized town? The sort you just want to pass through quickly.