The long awaited Consolidated Local Environment Plan and Development Control Plan which went to Central Coast Council last week for adoption was deferred by the councillors.
Deputy Mayor Jane Smith put forward the deferral, saying they needed time for legal advice on council’s ability to rezone privately owned land holdings. She also wanted an updated table that compared the proposed changes with the former Gosford and Wyong councils’ plans, which this process was consolidating, and a briefing on the environmental and urban edge review. Councillors were unanimous in voting for the deferral.
The LEP and DCP were out on public exhibition from late 2018 until March 2019 and attracted 756 written submissions. The consolidation of the former Gosford and Wyong planning instruments is the first stage in writing a Central Coast Comprehensive LEP.
It aims to consolidate and harmonise planning controls across the region and simplify the planning process, including rules on minimum sizes of bocks of residential land which were different in the two former council areas. The plan aims to reduce minimum lot sizes across the coast to 450m2 in the R2 low density residential zones.
This would create a theoretical potential of 1,147 parcels of land to be created within the former Gosford city council area. The majority would not be realised due to the placement of existing homes on the blocks and limitations imposed by existing DCP controls that increase lot size requirements based on site slope.
The draft plan recommends dual occupancies be permitted in the same zone on lots at least 550m2 for attached and 700m2 for detached dual occupancies. Submissions from the public dealt with shop top housing, requests for public conservation zones for lands with high environmental value as well as specific zoning requests for areas such as Cockrone Lagoon at MacMasters Beach and Old Sydney Town.
A number of submissions raised concern over the rezoning for high rise development and increased density within the Woy Woy Peninsula. The report said the proposal did not seek to rezone Woy Woy Peninsula for high rise development. “Land zones that apply within the Woy Woy Peninsula under the current Gosford LEP will remain under the Central Coast LEP, ’’ the council responded.
“The maximum height and floor space ratio currently applicable within the business centre and surrounding R1 General Residential zoned land is not proposed to change. ” It said the introduction of dual occupancy development within the R2 low density residential zone was not considered to have a major impact on density and could even have less impact than already permissible uses such as secondary dwellings, boarding houses and seniors housing.
The report to councillors said that during the preparation of the draft LEP and draft DCP a number of matters were identified that required further and more detailed consideration and that investigative studies had commenced to inform the next stages.
Earlier in the process, Cr Jane Smith had tried to get the council to simply bypass a consolidated plan and go straight to a comprehensive plan. The draft plans will come back to the council next year. Under rules set by the State Government when it amalgamated the two councils in 2016, the LEP has to be completed by July 26, 2020.
Source: Central Coast Council meeting, Dec 9 Reporter: Merilyn Vale