Ourimbah Region Residents Association (ORRA) has been reassured by Central Coast Council that the town’s “village” status will be retained in forward planning policies.
Gary Hamer, Section Manager, Urban Growth Strategies, told the association’s February 5 meeting, that Ourimbah would be classified as a Local Centre, equivalent to a village, in the yet to be released Urban Spatial Plan.
That announcement was welcome news for the 62 residents who attended the meeting, particularly as the draft plan was designating Ourimbah as a Town Centre.
Hamer, two of his staff, and two of the Wyong Ward councillors, Louise Greenaway and Kyle McGregor, were present at the meeting to hear what Ourimbah residents wanted in the controversial and long running Masterplan and Land Use Strategy.
ORRA spokesman, Greg McGill, said “we believe we were able to provide Mr Hamer and his staff a pragmatic and achievable framework for the Masterplan based on a consensus view of the Ourimbah residents.
“We tried very hard to reach all residents for their views, letterboxing almost 1,500 residences with a newsletter and survey, as well as promoting this on various Facebook sites.
“Our survey received 138 responses and 69 people attended a meeting on January 29 to canvas further opinions”.
As a result of that meeting, ORRA prepared a list of 20 items that residents believe should be incorporated in the final Masterplan and Land Use Strategy for Ourimbah and they were presented to Council officials for consideration.
ORRA member, Brian Davies, outlined the practical difficulties of developing Ourimbah because of topography, flood, and bushfire risks.
However, he was able to demonstrate that the council’s target of between 160-180 additional dwellings between 2016 and 2036 can be easily achieved without resorting to multi-storey development, by a combination of new subdivisions and urban consolidation in the form of dual occupancy, town houses, villa units, two storey units, secondary dwellings and even allowing subdivision of some rural blocks within the precinct area.
Source:
Media release, Feb 13
Ourimbah Region Residents’ Association