Austin Butler Reserve at Woy Woy has been taken off Central Coast Council’s list of land to be reclassified – for now – but Administrator Rik Hart is pushing ahead with another phase of community consultation on the contentious proposal to reclassify the land for sale to the neighbouring Peninsula Plaza.
Peninsula residents were out in force at the September 26 Council meeting, making it clear they will fight to the bitter end to keep the entire reserve in public hands.
The issue has been a hot potato since it was first mooted that a portion of the reserve be reclassified and sold to Peninsula Plaza to allow for expansion of carparking and loading dock facilities.
Following community uproar, Hart announced at Council’s August meeting that he would put the matter back out for public consultation, with residents to vote on either keeping the land in public hands or reclassifying it for sale, with any sale proceeds to go towards an extensive greening program on the Peninsula.
That announcement, labelled by member for Gosford Liesl Tesch as “blackmail”, was met with fury by 13 community groups which combined to re-affirm opposition to any sell-off.
Coral Roberts addressed the public forum prior to the September 26 meeting on behalf of residents, saying there were more than 2,000 signatures on a petition opposing the sell-off.
“The pressing concern that affects us all is the heat the heat island effect,” she said.
“Urban landscapes are heating.
“We should be working with Mother Nature, not against her.
“The planting of new trees will not replace these magnificent trees (in Austin Butler Reserve), which we must not lose.
“They are a part of Woy Woy – nature’s solution to cooling our environment, reducing CO2 and providing habitat for many native species.”
She said the trees must be retained “not just for ourselves but for future generations” and suggested Peninsula Plaza should be left to solve its own design problems.
“The community has made it very clear we will fight to protect our trees,” she said.
Speaking in favour of selling the land, Peter O’Donnell said Peninsula Plaza had been in the heart of the Woy Woy business district for more than 30 years.
“Woolworths has been an integral part of the shopping centre over that time and one of the main employers in the area,” he said.
“The way of carrying out deliveries has changed dramatically with much larger vehicles being used.”
O’Donnell said semi-trailers entering the plaza carpark via Blackwall Rd posed danger and were the cause of major traffic delays.
“These vehicles have to reverse into the loading dock, protruding into the carpark,” he said.
“Traffic grinds to a halt and traffic delays spill back into Blackwall Rd.”
He said anti-social behaviour in the reserve impacts on customers coming into the plaza and that expansion of the loading dock would be a benefit to the wider community.
Matthew Wales also spoke in favour of reclassifying the land, saying it would be an important step in enabling the shopping centre to extend its carpark and rationalise its loading dock.
He said there had been many vehicle/semi-trailer/pedestrian conflicts in recent years which could be safely resolved by reclassification.
“This has wider implications for the Woy Woy town centre – it is imperative the shopping centre operates as efficiently as possible,” he said.
Administrator Hart said after “thinking about it long and hard”, he had decided to remove the site from the land reclassification proposal considered later in the meeting but reiterated that the matter would again go out for public consultation.
Hart once again emphasised the benefits of a sale which would see money put back into “thousands of trees” for the Peninsula.
He stressed that the pocket of land in question is not the entire reserve and said a greening program would make long-term progress in mitigating the impacts of Climate Change into the future.
“This would be in addition to other Council street greening programs,” he said.
Opponents of the proposal claim that a greening program on the Peninsula should not be dependent upon the sale of community assets.
Hart said an open survey on the issue would be available via the yourvoiceourcoast website “as soon as possible” and there would also be independently conducted targeted representative survey.
Terry Collins