A park used as a subdivision selling point is not being provided. Residents of Gwandalan’s newest residential subdivision want to know what happened to their promised playground-park, and they are not going to let Central Coast Council off the hook until they find out.
Mr Bill Symington, Chairman of the Gwandalan and Summerland Point Peninsula Improvement Group Inc, said the missing park had been part of the major Rosecorp residential development off Kanangra Dve at Gwandalan, but it has been “deleted”. “The approved plans for the development showed the park as part of the LEP, but it was deemed to be 0.4 hectares, which meant that it was 0.1 hectare smaller than the minimum size required for a park in the Wyong LEP,” Mr Symington said. “So rather than requiring the developer to make the park bigger, the developer, in consultation with council and the Department of Planning, deleted it from their plans,” Mr Symington said.
“The development was approved in the end, without the park, a couple of modifications went through to the State Government for final sign off, but the park was deleted at the suggestion of Wyong Council,” he said. “Residents found out when Council was ‘tidying up’ that the modifications to the DA included deletion of the park,” he said. According to Mr Symington, the inclusion of the park in the development was used as a selling point. “Residents, once they purchased their properties, were then shocked to learn that they were not going to get their park,” he said. Over the past two years, according to Mr Symington, both the former Wyong Council and Central Coast Council under administration “refused to meet with the community”. “This whole development is in a low area where there are no breezes and the best sites happen to be where the park was meant to me.” Mr Symington said he started to write to newly elected Mayor, Jane Smith, in November. “She has been out to have a look, with Clr Doug Vincent, and we have involved our State Member, Ms Yasmin Catley,” he said.
“We understand the Mayor was not there when this happened, but we want Council to investigate how this happened and we are hoping Councillors will back our call for an investigation,” he said. Mr Symington said all one hundred homeowners who had built and moved into the new subdivision had signed a petition supporting an investigation into the park’s deletion and calling for its reinstatement. Tunkawallin Oval, which is 1.6km away from the northern end of the subdivision, and on the opposite side of Kanangra Dve, has been designated as the site of a district park. In lieu of Section 94 contributions and the deleted park, Rosecorp has to provide a shared pathway from the subdivision to Tunkawallin reserve. The Rosecorp subdivision at Gwandalan was approved as a State Significant Development under Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, which is now defunct. At least 100 out of the 187 blocks in the Rosecorp subdivision have already been developed, but plans to turn Tunkawallin Reserve into a district park-playground have not been advanced.
“There has never been a budget, there have never been any plans or concept drawings, we have no information about the type of equipment, so we don’t have anything to compare it with,” he said. Mr Symington said the shared pathway, which currently ends at the intersection of Kanangra Dve and Orana Rd, is on the opposite side of a very busy road to the new housing estate, and runs through heavy bushland, making it unsafe for children to traverse without adult supervision. He said the Wyong LEP also required new housing developments to have a greenspace park within 500 metres of any of the properties within the subdivision. “There is still vacant land, so there is still the opportunity for some of the unsold land to become a playground.” Rosecorp was not allowed to add nine lots to the subdivision to replace the deleted park, but they were able to slightly increase lot sizes.
“They did add to the retail value of the whole area for a lot of the lots that still hadn’t been sold, so they virtually added 0.4 of a hectare to the retail capacity by adding a little bit to each block, so in effect, the developer got the prime lakefront land and another 0.4 of a hectare added to the overall size of his subdivision,” Mr Symington said. “There is a solution to this situation though. “Developer, Mr Bob Rose, could dedicate 0.5 of a hectare of his own land to give the families their playground. “We have written to them but we haven’t received any effective reply. “They acknowledged receipt of our letter some three months ago,” he said.
Source: Interview, Apr 12 Bill Symington, Gwandalan and Summerland Point Peninsula Improvement Group Inc Jackie Pearson, journalist