The Central Coast is open for business, Mayor Lawrie McKinna announced to the audience at the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) Central Coast meeting on Thursday, November 14, adding that he was pro development.
“We’re all aware that the NSW Government has recently proposed new housing targets for many councils across NSW, including us,” McKinna said.
“I can assure you we are working to understand these targets and how these might be delivered – particularly what needs to be put in place to support these targets.
“That includes understanding where the funding is coming from for the extra roads, schools, sports grounds, playgrounds and the other things growing communities need.”
McKinna said it was up to the new councillors, as a team, to build a foundation for future growth and to get things done again after four years in administration where the focus had been on financial recovery.
“So how will we do this? – it comes down to having The Four Ps in place – and these are our plans, processes, projects and partnerships,” McKinna said.
The plans include the Central Coast Local Housing Strategy which was endorsed by the council administration in May this year.
“Two growth corridors have been identified as key locations for the Central Coast’s future economic development, housing growth and investment,” McKinna said.
These are the Southern Growth Corridor and the Northern Growth Corridor.
The Southern Growth Corridor runs between Somersby and Erina.
The Northern Corridor is split into two areas: Tuggerah to Wyong and Greater Warnervale.
McKinna also talked about the Local Strategic Planning Statement, which outlines Gosford, Greater Warnervale, Woy Woy and Lake Munmorah as growth areas.
“Our vision is that Gosford will continue to grow as the undisputed capital of the Central Coast,” McKinna said.
“It is our social and economic heart”.
He said Gosford had the highest proportion of high density homes across the Central Coast and it had the greatest capacity for more housing – about 25,000 additional homes are expected in the future.
“Gosford and West Gosford are attracting many young people due to great transport links, and higher density rental places,” he said.
Greater Warnervale was also a regionally significant growth area.
“It has enormous potential and is expected to take most of our population, housing and employment growth until 2041,” he said.
Greater Warnervale is expected to grow from about 36,800 people to 64,000 by 2041 with an additional 10,000 homes.
“The new growth areas in Hamlyn Terrace, Wadalba, Woongarrah and Warnervale are predominantly attracting a family housing market,” McKinna said.
“Our vision for Greater Warnervale is for a vibrant, safe town centre encouraging walking and cycling and we want to achieve a high standard of architectural design,” he said.
McKinna then spoke about Lake Munmorah.
“Our Greater Lake Munmorah Structure Plan sets out a framework for this growth and estimates that 3,500 new homes will be built there,” McKinna said.
“We’re proposing a variety of densities here to support a range of housing options.”
On Woy Woy, McKinna said the challenge was that the State Government had designated it as an area for increased residential density close to the transport hub but, at the same time, it had introduced limits on development in flood impacted areas.
He said Council would soon prepare a strategic plan for Woy Woy to guide its future growth.
He acknowledged the concerns about development application procedures and processing times and said an improvement plan was in place to address this.
“A challenge for Council is that we process the highest volume of development applications in NSW,’’ he said.
“In 2023/24 there were 2,170 DAs lodged across all DA types with around 200 new DAs each month.”
McKinna said there were more than 20 vacant positions in the DA unit at the start of this financial year and Council was now nine key people short.
“Generally, senior roles are the most difficult to fill, as are the highly technical roles,” he said.
“We are looking for nine more staff members.
“We need these people for complex development applications and we’ve allocated $8M over three years to attract new planning staff.”
McKinna talked about projects such as the new Gosford regional library which is on track for completion mid 2025.
“Our library, along with the University of Newcastle’s Clinical School at Gosford Hospital, the arrival of their new Central Coast campus and the expansion of the Gosford TAFE, will create a world-class education and training precinct in the heart of our city,” he said.
In speaking about partnerships, McKinna said: “in all we do, our number one partner is our community”.
“When we developed our Community Strategic Plan, our residents told us they want a growing and competitive region, a place of opportunity for people, balanced and sustainable development, and the natural beauty of the Central Coast to be protected.
“And we will ensure that future growth respects their wishes,” McKinna said.”
Merilyn Vale