Coast Environmental Alliance (CEA) is set to contact every Central Coast councillor to seek a clear commitment to protect all C2 Conservation-zoned land across the region.
This follows a public commitment made by Labor during the 2024 Council elections to protect all C2-zoned land—areas recognised for their high ecological, cultural, and environmental value.
All Labor candidates pledged: “If elected to Central Coast Council I will do everything in my power to protect C2 high-value conservation land and educate the community about its environmental and community benefits.”
CEA is now calling on all councillors, regardless of party affiliation, to publicly affirm their support for the ongoing protection of C2-zoned land under the Central Coast Local Environment Plan (LEP).
“C2 land is the backbone of our conservation network,” CEA spokesperson and President of Kariong Progress Association Lisa Bellamy said.
“It is the zoning that gives highest protection for ecologically and culturally sensitive land and it is not allowed to be developed upon.”
Lisa Bellamy
Bellamy, who stood as a candidate in the 2024 Council elections on a platform of environmental protection and community representation, says it’s now time for elected representatives to follow through on their promises.
“One critical example is the C2-zoned bushland at Kariong Sacred Lands, currently under threat from a housing development proposal by the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council,” she said.
“While the final decision rests with the NSW Government, our local councillors still have a vital role in representing the community and advocating for the protection of C2 land.”
Bellamy warned that if endangered wetlands, Areas of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS), and irreplaceable cultural heritage at Kariong are allowed to be rezoned and developed, it will set a dangerous precedent.
“If this land can be lost, then no C2 land is safe,” she said.
“We’re talking about significant tracts of conservation land.
“This isn’t just about the Central Coast; C2-zoned conservation land across all of NSW, zoned precisely to prevent development, could be decimated.
“The proposed development at Kariong goes against the wishes of the local Traditional Descendants – the GuriNgai and Darkinoong peoples – who have consistently called for the land to remain protected.
“A strong statement from Council opposing any rezoning or development of C2 land, particularly land with environmental and cultural significance, would carry real weight.
“Local government advocacy to the State Government matters.”
Bellamy said the Greens have already come out in support of protecting the Kariong Sacred Lands, and she urged other councillors to follow suit.
“We’ll be asking our local representatives to write to the State Government, urging them to uphold their own planning laws and protect the areas they themselves zoned as off-limits to development,” she said.
“This is a test of integrity.
“Will our leaders stand by their commitments, uphold the Local Environment Plan (LEP) and honour State legislation – including the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 – or will they allow some of the Central Coast’s most ecologically significant areas to be rezoned and lost forever?”
This area is too important , Lisa has taken me around the lands . There is value in eco tourism. Please have a vision for a future
don’t forget the C2 land at Summerland Point where the disputed group home is sited
What a crying bloody shame there isn’t as much concern for what is now left of the remnant bushland (home to who knows how many species of threatened and/or endangered ecological communities, including Porters Creek Wetland?), in this, the northern part of the Central Coast, which the ever alert, ever willing and ever avaricious “developers” and their henchmen and women, have already “raped” and “pillaged”!
Shame, you gutless State and Federal Politicians who have rolled-over and now the only chance this environmental bastardry might be hauled-in, before we lose what is now left, has fallen upon the few Central Coast Councillors who have some idea of how important the natural environment is to sustaining all life, including that of humans!