The Central Coast Coastal Management Plan is scheduled to go before Central Coast Council for adoption at the June 23 meeting.
If adopted, the draft document will go on public exhibition next month, with expectations of strong community feedback both in support and opposition.
Environment and Planning Committee Chair Doug Eaton said it was important to get the document out on exhibition and encourage submissions.
“The sooner we have a plan accepted by the State Government, the sooner we can take action without requiring further approvals from other agencies — and those actions will then become eligible for state funding,” he said.
The draft CMP has drawn criticism from residents and local associations who say it contains broad language, is missing key actions for public infrastructure and private properties, and fails to communicate with those affected.
“While the draft CMP includes sobering mapping that shows storm surges could break through to Terrigal Lagoon and threaten adjoining homes and infrastructure, residents would have to bear the cost,” one resident said.
Residents say Council failed to adequately address high-risk suburbs like Wamberal and The Entrance North during a recent Planning Committee meeting.
“These areas are tourist and residential hubs – there’s no real plan in place like what the Gold Coast had 20 years ago when they were facing similar risks,” another resident said.
The draft CMP focuses on planned retreat and investigating sand nourishment – measures residents say are not viable or immediate enough to manage the current situation.
“Planned retreat isn’t affordable, and there’s no timeline for action,” a North Entrance resident said.
“Investigating sand nourishment is just more delay while our homes are at risk.”
Dredging at The Entrance and sand nourishment of The Entrance North Beach were also discussed at a recent meeting, but no clear explanation was given for why it had stopped or why Council’s dredge was sold — a dredge now being used on the Gold Coast.
“No-one even seemed to know why the dredge was sold — how are we meant to trust there’s a plan?” one local said.
With no clear direction on where protection works should be applied or how infrastructure and homes will be safeguarded, many say the report reads more like paperwork than action.
“There’s no comfort in this CMP,” one resident said.
“It just doesn’t deal with the reality on the ground.”
Given the CMP is a 10-year plan, multiple experts question why Council is allocating resources to explore retreat options that are widely seen as unviable over the coming decade.
A coastal engineer said while the draft plan allowed protection works to be considered on a case-by-case basis via development applications, and proposed region-wide engineering design standards, it lacked strategic direction on where such protection was appropriate.
“A core concern is the CMP’s avoidance of a clear stance — protect or retreat,” the engineer said.
“Instead, it proposes further investigation through a Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy, which includes options like managed or planned retreat — yet this comes without any practical way to implement retreat in the foreseeable future.”
Meanwhile, Macmasters Beach is yet to see action.
At an Extraordinary Meeting on June 10, the Motion to address “the future possibility” of temporary protection works at Macmasters Beach was supported unanimously.
If the recommendations are adopted by the full Council, Council will look at work to the embankment, repairing or replacing existing “bulka bags” (filled with sand), and improving drainage in the area.
An arborist report on the area’s Norfolk Pines will be carried out and Council will disconnect the beach shower at the southern end of the surf club due to the erosion impacts on the embankment fronting Macmasters Beach Surf Life Saving Club.
The State Government has provided Council with $300,000 to help cover the project but Council needs to request an extension of the current Coast and Estuary grant to December 31, 2026, and has noted that the likely construction window would now be mid-2026.
Macmasters Beach Coastal Management is expected to become a standing agenda item for the Coastal Estuary and Floodplain Management subcommittee.
Skaie Hull
Interesting this article mentions residents who are most likely the owners of the beach front property as seen by the journalist video interviews.
The houses in North Entrance were listed in the imediate hazard zone by Wyong Council in 2011. The draft Wyong czmp listed retreat thru the lep and dcp, Now 14 years later the “resident” lambast the eventual need of retreat in the current ccc draft cmp. They all complain about inaction to protect there doomed properties and ignore the increasing impacts of sea level rise, storm surges and receding Beach fronts.