Landowners at Wadalba East claim that Central Coast Council is proposing to re-write a master plan for the area, with more than 30 landowners looking at reduced development lot sizes and development applications (DAs) stalled.
The area was identified for urban release in the early 1990s and has been on the urban radar ever since.
In 2010 the landowners had their first meeting and agreed to unite to get the precinct going.
In 2012, the former Wyong Shire Council unanimously supported the rezoning, but it was bogged down for years as the fragmented landowners worked through the various studies required to support a rezoning.
The land was rezoned in 2021 to enable low density residential development of about 1200 residential lots, excluding flood prone areas and land required for conservation, recreation and infrastructure.
Last year, the State Government provided Council with a $1.4M Regional Housing Fund grant for sewerage and drainage design work to fast-track the land release.
Landowners say Council has re-diverted some of that funding towards looking at a reconfigured master plan, despite the original plan having been signed off on by Council and the Department of Planning.
Documents received by landowner Paul Hanna under the NSW Government Information Public Access (GIPA) Act show the scope of a Council sewer and drainage project changed after receipt of the State funding to encompass ecological concerns as part of an effort to “de-risk the release area leading into construction”.
Landowners say Council is duplicating work it has already done and causing unnecessary delays in approving housing development.
Eight landowners have put in DAs yielding about 450 blocks collectively and others are working on applications but none have yet been approved.
Five of the oldest DAs have been with Council for between 246 and 462 days.
“People are sleeping in cars because of the lack of housing and we have landowners that have gone to the wall trying to deliver homes,” Hanna said.
Hanna said landowners had met in June with Member for Wyong and Minister for the Central Coast David Harris, Council CEO David Farmer and Administrator Rik Hart seeking a way forward.
He said landowners were shown a new draft masterplan which could add years to the process and reduce the number of residential blocks able to be developed.
The new draft masterplan says large portions of the site are dominated by key habitat for various species of fauna, including the critically endangered Swift Parrot.
Landowners say while the parrot has been observed passing through the Central Coast, it has not been recorded in the precinct and they have already done a Biodiversity Development Assessment Report (BDAR) and have identified appropriate offset measures including retiring eco credits to account for any potential impacts.
The draft masterplan also says infrastructure, staging and connectivity issues need to be addressed in a coordinated manner, but landowners say their DAs address all these issues.
A Council spokesperson said the 2021 rezoning was supported by a site-specific chapter in the (now) Central Coast Development Control Plan (DCP).
“At the time, it was identified that developers would need to do more planning work before their development applications would be successful,” the spokesperson said.
“This additional work is described in the adopted DCP and includes management of biodiversity impacts; provision of water, sewer, transport and drainage infrastructure; and sequencing of development across the six stages of the precinct.
The Council report stated the concept plan provided in the DCP was indicative only and future lot layouts and corridor widths would be determined based on more detailed assessment associated with a future development application and some areas zoned R2 Low Density Residential would be required to be avoided and remain undeveloped as a result of biodiversity constraints.
The spokesperson said the complex issues of the precinct are difficult to resolve on a site-by-site basis.
“Since rezoning, it has been difficult for the 41 separate landowners to address the outstanding planning requirements in a co-ordinated manner,” the spokesperson said.
“It is for this reason that Council sought and was awarded $1.4M in grant funding through the NSW Government’s Regional Housing Fund to complete that outstanding work.
“Council has, to date, met the NSW Government’s funding requirements, which include comparative master plans that take into consideration site constraints, infrastructure requirements and financial viability for landowners.
“The next stage of the project is to progress to detailed design of water, sewer, road and drainage infrastructure, which aims to unlock the development potential of the precinct.
“Concurrently with this enabling work, six of the landowners within the precinct lodged separate development applications between November 2021 and November 2022.
“There are two key reasons that Council has been unable to determine these development applications: biodiversity and infrastructure planning issues have not yet been resolved, and the applications are for later stages of the precinct and have not identified how services will be provided out of sequence.
“None of these applications is for the first stages of the development on which the precinct relies for water, sewer, transport and drainage servicing.
“The information presented so far does not provide enough detail to determine whether there is a satisfactory approach to managing biodiversity impacts.
“Council understands the cost pressures for landowners, particularly where they have incurred significant debt to purchase their land and progress their developments.
“Council welcomes the opportunity to work constructively with them to get to a position where there is adequate information for development applications to be determined.
“The NSW Government’s investment through the Regional Housing Fund is key to achieving that outcome.
“Council is also acutely aware of the lack of affordable housing on the Central Coast.
“Our housing crisis is not due to a lack of housing volume, it is because the housing we have is neither affordable nor appropriate for many in our community, particularly the most vulnerable.
“We have approved 8,000 new dwellings over the last five years and the development industry has built around 90 per cent of that number.
“This is well in excess of the Department of Planning’s target of 5,700 dwellings over the same period.”
The spokesperson said Council has not rediverted funds away from the purposes agreed with the funding body and does not propose to rezone the site.
Council denied it is duplicating work.
Terry Collins