Pressure is mounting on Planning Minister Paul Scully to refuse a rezoning that could see 300ha of prime conservation land rezoned on the Central Coast.
An alliance of 15 local organisations announced in July that it would call for ministerial intervention after Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart endorsed rezoning approximately 3,438 land parcels, mostly rural-residential, hobby farms and conservation lifestyle blocks, at the May Council meeting.
The vast majority of the land is currently zoned 7(c)2 – Scenic Protection – Rural Small Holdings or 7(a) Conservation.
The move is yet to be approved by the Minister.
Last week Mangrove Mountain and Districts Community Group added its voice to the call and now five more groups have come on board.
The Total Environment Centre (TEC), National Parks Association (NPA) of NSW, Better Planning Network, Great Eastern Ranges Environmental Conservation Organisation, and Greater Sydney Landcare have all called for refusal of the rezoning.
NPA spokesperson Pam McCann, said if the Minister approved the Council recommendation it would destroy the unique visual landscape, character and lifestyle of the Central Coast, eliminate extensive areas of threatened species habitat, and put Aboriginal cultural heritage at risk.
“Ten years ago, the NSW Government promised a new Environmental Land Zone to protect the Central Coast’s unique, irreplaceable and beautiful Coastal Open Space System (COSS) – a system of scenic bushland reserves owned and managed by the local council since the 1970s,” she said.
“The former Coalition Government broke that promise and now a Labor NSW Government is poised to approve a planning proposal from a council under administration that will wreck wildlife corridors and devastate the future of COSS.”
Great Eastern Ranges CEO Gary Howling said the organisation would stand with other groups to protect the region’s green corridors of protected bushland.
“(These) create a striking backdrop and provide diverse habitats for a host of animal species, including yellow-bellied gliders, powerful owls and red-crowned toadlet,” he said.
“These areas have been protected since the 1970s for a reason.
“We believe the Central Coast’s unique Coastal Open Space System (COSS) and the surrounding privately-owned bushland intended to be added to COSS is the exemplar of connectivity in urban areas for species like gliding possums who are more at risk from habitat fragmentation.”
Greater Sydney Landcare Chair Bev Debrincat said the Minister needed to understand the land’s “value to nature and the community” and refuse the proposal.
Spokesperson for the Better Planning Network, Maire Sheehan, said the planning proposal presented by Council did not represent the “like for like” rezoning it had promised.
“We are talking about privately-owned land mainly located on ridgelines and escarpments that doesn’t need to be freed up for housing,” she said.
“The Central Coast already has enough residential land to meet its population and housing requirements.”
Total Environment Centre spokesperson Saul Deane said the most disturbing element of the proposed rezoning was that it ignored advice from the Biodiversity Conservation and Science Directorate (BCS) within the NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCCEEW).
“The DCCEEW concluded that this planning proposal would have a negative impact on biodiversity in this region and we believe Mr Scully has an obligation to follow the expert advice of his own government,” he said.
“The BCS said the conservation land that Council wants to downgrade to land use zones offering less protection and more development should have the highest level of protection available outside a national park – the C2 Conservation Zone.
“How can the Minister ignore expert advice from the agency responsible for protecting biodiversity across NSW?”
Dear Minister,
I urge you to do anything in your power to have the Planning Minister reject the most recent planning proposal for Deferred Matters land . This flawed plan was signed off by one man, the Administrator of Central Coast Council. We residents of the Central Coast are only a few months away from local council elections….at present we have no councillors who live in and know our region and understand the vital importance of protecting our precious habitat and biodiversity.
The planning proposal in its present form would result in the loss many hundreds of acres of land that should be zoned for Conservation ….not 35 different land uses . If this zoning is allowed to pass it is inevitable that developers and bulldozers will follow .
Departments within the government oppose this proposal as do many local community groups representing many thousands of residents.
It is not “ like for like “ as promised by the LNP Government upon amalgamation.
It must be rejected and all land zoned 7(a) conservation be zoned C3, and 7(c)2 land be zoned C3 .
SAVE AND PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.