Central Coast Council has confirmed that some waterfront properties at Wamberal Beach have covenants that indemnify Council for damage to those developments.
But it has not said how many of the 65 homes have the covenants.
And it has not answered questions on how many of the covenants have been enforced in the last five years.
“The Coastal Hazard Management chapter of the Central Coast Development Control Plan identifies that proponents of development within Coastal Hazard Areas are generally required to register on title a mechanism that indemnifies Council for damage to, or as a result of, development within designated Coastal Hazard Areas, which include Wamberal beachfront properties,” Council said.
“These agreements on title may take a number of forms, one of which is a positive covenant, and in some circumstances are not required, as every development is assessed on its merits.
“Some of the agreements on title require landowners to take action to manage the impacts of their development on adjacent public land.
“This agreement does not negate the need for development consent to conduct works required to manage any potential impacts nor does it negate landowners’ obligation to comply with the Coastal Management Act.
“The Coastal Management Act requires that the preferred approach to addressing the coastal hazard at a particular location be identified, documented and agreed, in consultation with the local community, by the Council, an expert panel and the NSW Government.
“The preferred approach for Wamberal, as adopted in the Gosford Beaches Coastal Zone Management Plan, is a whole of embayment wall and beach nourishment.
“This is the solution that private landowners and Council (as a manager of public beachfront land and in line with many Council resolutions over many years), are pursuing.
“This solution is entirely consistent with the agreements on title and has been in development for a significant period of time.”
Wamberal Beach Save Our Sand (SOS) has called on Council to enforce the covenants to restore sand and native vegetation to beachfront properties whenever they are eroded by storms, rather than build a whole of embayment seawall.
Council has said it is likely the covenants would become unnecessary and could be revoked should a whole of embayment seawall be in place.
Wamberal Protection Association (WPA) is believed to be close to submitting a development application for the seawall but SOS believes some landowners have not committed to the plan.
Coast Community News has sighted emails purported to be from WPA to landowners urging them to join the group DA.
“We have worked very hard over the past 2.5 years to develop and design long term protection for the entire beach at Wamberal,” the email says.
“We have done this at no expense to landowners and spent hundreds of hours helping all landowners along the beach develop a world class protection solution.”
The email says it is a “once in a generation opportunity” and explains why.
“We have never, in the history of the beach, had design guidelines to follow; we do now and we have followed them to the letter and this will ensure our protection gets approved,” it says.
“We have never, in the history of the beach, had the Council join a group DA as landowners but they are in this DA application and have been working extremely closely with us to ensure we are successful.”
It was revealed earlier this year that Council has contributed $100,000 for its share of the application.
Council said it was working with the Office of Strategic Lands on the future status of five parcels of Crown Land which are situated on the alignment of the proposed protection works.
Meanwhile, Council is working on three new Coastal Management Plans for the entire coastal area.
Coastal Management Programs set the long-term strategy for the management of the coastal environments including lakes, lagoons, estuaries, beaches and associated catchments.
They are prepared by councils in accordance with the NSW Government Coastal Management Framework and will replace existing Estuary and Coastal Zone Management Plans prepared under previous legislation.
See details at https://www.yourvoiceourcoast.com/waterways
Merilyn Vale