The initial Central Coast Regional Development Corporation-commissioned (CCRDC) traffic study for the Gosford waterfront development, commissioned Cardno to report on traffic projections involved, assuming nil growth outside the area.
Not with-standing this, we have seen in the immediate vicinity, projected very significant growth in traffic relating to: the three towers-Froggy’s [Waterside Towers] development; the heritage hotel development; Creighton’s development; the tower behind the old post and telegraph office; Singleton’s hotel development [Bonython]; the Lederer-Kibbleplex and Imperial Centre development; and now, Council plans to develop a car park in upper Georgiana Terrace (just for starters); not to mention the tax office; the finance building; the projected sale of the rest of the old PS complex; the calls for the Performing Arts Centre; the popup restaurant complex in Alfred Higgs Pl; and, Charlesworth’s visions for an enhanced stadium and for further development of a major hotel to the west of the stadium, beside the railway line, to name some.
Where is the integrated traffic study to accommodate all this development plus increases in the daily shopping, visitor, commuter and tourist traffic, from Sydney to East Gosford, (with its approved high-rise developments) Avoca, Copacabana, Erina, Wamberal and The Entrance Road?
The one thing Cardno did warn about was that sea level rise projections would see an increase in water levels around the Broadwater, such that the sandstone barrier there needed to be raised by 1.25 to 1.5 metres before any development commenced.
Where would this sandstone wall stop and start?
Presumably it would have to wrap around into Narara Creek and end where the land rises at Point Frederick?
How will it be paid for?
Alternatively, Cardno stated that the Highway needed to be raised by a similar height around the Broadwater.
What planning is in place to accommodate this before the suggested expansions of Crown Land development on reclaimed Crown Land around the Broadwater, at the pie shop caravan, at Leagues Club Field and Iguanas, to name some sites?
Where are, not only the feasibility studies, but also the plans to resolve the issue of sea level rise?
It appears that it is not only until after each individual development is approved by JRPP that the process of exploring such matters begins, and then only on a development-by-development basis, not looking at the cumulative impacts and integrated planning.
Central Coast Council needs to immediately, publicly release, not a revised plan for the CBD, but an integrated traffic management and sea level rise plan for the entire CBD, accommodating all DAs already approved as well as rising sea levels.
Central Coast Council, squeezed between the State Government’s development policy and developer aspirations, also needs to note and respond to John McInerney’s warnings about a wall of high rise towers across the waterfront, blocking the southerlies and creating a heat sink for both the CBD and suburbs beyond.
Beyond that it needs to show how it intends to protect Gosford’s single most important historic precinct, the heritage listed buildings of South Mann St, with historic buildings by three prominent early architects, Mortimer Lewis, James Barnet, and Edmund Blacket, as well as our 1887 War Memorial Park and Poppy Park.
This precinct is becoming a casualty of Council’s failure to take action to protect it.
Email,
Jan 26, 2017
Kay Williams, Pearl Beach