I read with disgust your reported coverage of the ‘vote’ by the Administrator at the Council Meeting on July 26 (Agenda Item 2.6) “the 300 lot subdivision of the Old Farm at Mardi to proceed”.
I attended this meeting to try to understand what was going on. Objection to the principle of subdivision/ rezoning of this area was voiced by Mike Campbell (and others, previously), but was brushed aside, and the deletion of the shopping/tourist complex was passed with no obvious comment, thus clearing the way for development.
Yet, at the same meeting, two matters on the business paper relating to Gosford Central development were deemed to be held over for the attention of the new (elected) Council after the pending election. I ask the question, what is so urgent about the Old Farm development that this matter could not also be held over until we have an elected body, wholly responsible to the electorate, to decide these matters?
It seemed obvious that this Council had already made up its mind to allow the overall rezoning of the property. The ‘village’ component from the Planning Proposal was of no importance, now that the RFS has withdrawn its bushfi re objection against the overall subdivision. So the Planning Proposal proceeds and the developer’s bulldozer revs up another gear. We, the present public of the Central Coast, and those who come after us, will lose out big time.
The cancerous spread of ‘development’ west of the M1 is set to accelerate now in disregard of the Central Coast Regional Plan 2036, which specifi cally requires Council to ‘protect the scenic amenity’. This with the knowledge (per the Plan) that there are over 450 hectares of land currently available for ‘rural residential purposes’ in the area in question. This is a bad result, and this Council’s continuing disregard for the proximity of the main water supply for the Central Coast (Mardi Dam), which is adjacent to this new suburb, is extraordinary.
Email, Aug 8 Dave Hollingsworth, Mardi