In the wake of community reaction to its draft Deferred Matters Lands Planning Proposal, Central Coast Council has extended the exhibition period until November 15, with the Community Environment Network (CEN) urging residents to have their say.
CEN Chair Gary Chestnut says suggested rezonings would be the “beginning of the end” for the Coast’s green strength and liveability.
“The proposal to move 3,000ha of 7(a) land into the C3 zone and all the deferred 7(c2) land into the C4 zone basically takes a wrecking ball to the environmental, cultural and scenic values that characterise the southern half of the Central Coast,” he said.
CEN has put a submission guide on the proposed rezonings on its website and urged residents to use its analysis to write their own submission before the new cut-off date of November 15.
Council says the proposal aims to incorporate deferred lands into the Central Coast Local Environment Plan 2022 (CCLEP 2022) assigning ‘like for like’ zoning and development standards based on the existing zones and environmental attributes of each land parcel.
This will result in the phasing out of historic planning instruments, which have applied to these lands for about 50 years and replace them with modern planning provisions that are consistent with those operating across the remainder of the Central Coast, it says.
But the CEN says differences in the way the former Gosford and Wyong councils interpreted and implemented the NSW Standard Instrument have been compounded, not resolved, by the creation of the CCLEP 2022.
“This has resulted in the proposed rezonings in the exhibited planning proposal not being like for like,” the CEN website says.
“This planning proposal would effectively rezone nearly 3,000ha of former 7(a) Conservation land into C3 which is an expanded 7(c2) zone.
“It is misleading for Council to … call this process ‘like for like’.
“An increase in the number of land uses may increase the monetary value of the land (but) the increase from five to 34 uses changes the character of the zone by allowing more and different types of development.
“It places more development pressure on the land and reduces the available land left for biodiversity.
“Because Council proposes to rezone 3,000 ha of deferred 7(a) land to C3, it has then proposed to zone the 2,222ha of 7(c2) deferred lands (over 2,150 parcels of land) as C4.
“The zoning objectives for 7(c2) are aimed at promoting ecologically, socially and economically sustainable development and the need for, and value of, biodiversity.
“These would be replaced in C4 with the objective to provide for low-impact residential development.”
The Deferred Lands are located east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, south of Ourimbah and are those lands excluded on the Central Coast Local Environmental Plan 2022 Land Application Map.
Council has prepared frequently asked questions and an online mapping tool that can be used to easily search for the specific land parcels that interest them.
Submissions will now close on Wednesday, November 15.
For more information on the draft Deferred Matters Land Planning Proposal and to have your say, visit yourvoiceourcoast.com/DeferredLands
As a Resident on the Central Coast I am against all rezoning of council land without the the input of the residents of the coast, the residents always should have a their say on any matter.
As a Resident on the Central Coast I am against all rezoning of council land without the the input of the residents of the coast, the residents always should have a their say on any matter.