Councillors briefed on airport masterplan

The possible future of Central Coast Airport at Warnervale could be best described as a business park facilitated by an aircraft landing strip, Central Coast Council CEO David Farmer said at a councillor briefing this week.

Businesses could include aviation related manufacturing, pilot training and university and TAFE aviation students.

The upcoming Central Coast Airport Masterplan was the main topic at the first councillor briefing where the public could attend.

The briefing was held on Tuesday, February 11, at the Wyong council building and three members of the public including a representative of the Central Coast Aero Club and this journalist attended.

The masterplan will be on the agenda at the February 25 Council meeting.

If adopted, the plan’s first steps will include defining the airport’s boundaries, consolidating lots and simplifying multiple zonings.

After that, consideration could be given to whether Council finances future runway upgrades or considers leasing or selling the airstrip.

The meeting heard that the power lines in Sparks Rd, on the opposite side of the road to the airport will be moved underground next week.

The work was expected to be completed this week but rain stalled the work.

Electrical work and the maintenance of trees to keep their height down is expected to increase the useful area of the runway for aircraft coming in to land.

The airport costs Council $158,000 per year but when asked if it had been running at a loss for its entire 50 years, the Council staffer said it was impossible to track down that sort of information.

Total cost to upgrade the airport’s runway is estimated at $5.7M.

The masterplan allows the airport runway to be widened from 10m to 18m and the taxiway to increase from 4.5m to 10.5m.

The upgrade would bring the strip up to Code 1B grade; enough to allow the relocation of emergency services from Arizona Rd, Charmhaven, but not enough to require a Federal Government Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) certification.

Council said CASA certification was not a goal as the runway was not long enough.

The masterplan has been a long time coming, under discussion even before the amalgamation of Wyong and Gosford councils in 2016 to form Central Coast Council.

And then the first crop of Central Coast councillors stopped all work on the airport and re-allocated the money – $6M – to employment generating projects across the former Wyong Shire.

In 2021, the State Government repealed The Warnervale Airport (Restrictions) Act of 1996 which had limited the flights in and out of the airport.

By then, Central Coast Council was under administration.

The administrator resolved in April 2021 to approve the development of a masterplan for the airport.

The resolution included the suspension of the development of the Warnervale conservation agreement and any agreement with the NSW biodiversity Conservation Trust to permanently protect the surrounding Porters Creek Wetland until the masterplan, the plan of management and a subdivision plan was registered that subdivides the Wetland and surrounding E2 land from employment land.

A draft of the masterplan went on public exhibition a year ago and appears to have been modified in response to community feedback.

More will become clear when it is tabled for the February Council meeting.

The briefing did not include a public copy of the masterplan.

At one of their first meetings, the newly elected councillors of 2024 discussed waiting for this masterplan before allowing the CEO to work on a lease for a helicopter business wanting to set up at the airport.

The CEO was given permission to advance the lease and a rescission motion at the following meeting to wait until the masterplan was tabled was lost but another rescission motion has since been submitted and will be dealt with at a future meeting.

A spokesperson for Your Central Coast Airport said after the meeting that the existing runway width was sufficient for majority of operations, it’s the width of the asphalt lid that is the issue.

It is currently only 10-12m wide, and needs to be at a minimum of double that, according to the group.

“Once the asphalt lid is widened it will increase utilisation of the airport due to operational safety constraints being removed,” the spokesperson said.

“Case in point, at the two Paul Bennet Airshows some of the aircraft such as the Kittyhawks, Spitfires and other warbird aircraft had to be flown down from either Cessnock or Maitland airports for their displays and could not land to be put on static display for the event patrons.

“The same applies to the more sophisticated GA aircraft such as Pilatus, TBMs, King Airs and other GA business aircraft which will be able to utilise the new Central Coast Airport Business Hub once the runway lid widening works have been completed.

“Exciting times ahead for the Council and the region,” he said.

Merilyn Vale