Please don’t destroy the Central Coast

An alliance of Central Coast Community Groups is urging the NSW Planning Minister to reject the Council’s bushland rezoning!

17 July 2024

 

AN alliance of community groups representing around 200,000 residents, has called for NSW Planning Minister, The Hon Paul Scully MP, to reject a Central Coast Council rezoning that could destroy at least 300Ha of bushland and result in the potential construction of at least 1200 dwellings on conservation land.

 

“Community opposition is so deep that we have taken the unusual step of paying for a full-page advertisement in our local newspaper so we can send Minister Scully an ‘open letter’,” said Gary Chestnut, Chair of the Community Environment Network.

 

“This is the last stand in a fight that has been going on since around 2011,” Mr Chestnut said. “The residents and ratepayers of the Central Coast are fed up with being ignored by a Council that has been under administration since 2020 and two successive tone deaf NSW Governments.

 

“We will not, ever, accept the destruction of our green ridgelines which are the visual landscape that gives the Central Coast its unique character.

“We will not stop until we beat this misguided proposal.”

 

The open letter to Minister Scully, to be published in Coast Community News on Thursday, 11 July 2024, includes a call to action for all Central Coast residents to write to the Planning Minister objecting to the proposal.

 

According to the alliance of community groups, if Mr Scully approves Central Coast Council’s recommendation, it will:

 

• Destroy the unique visual landscape, character and lifestyle of the Central Coast,

 

• Eliminate extensive areas of threatened species habitat,

 

• Fail to protect local Aboriginal cultural heritage,

 

• Wreck wildlife corridors between National Parks, State Forests and reserves,

 

• Devastate the future of the region’s unique, irreplaceable and beautiful Coastal Open Space System (COSS) – a system of scenic bushland reserves owned and managed by the local council since the 1970s which is a one of a kind and found nowhere else in NSW.

 

Mr Chestnut said Central Coast Council had already ignored hundreds of submissions and emails from concerned residents opposing this rezoning of bushland, which the council misleadingly described as “like for like”.

 

“Even more distressing was Council’s decision to ignore advice from the Biodiversity Conservation and Science Directorate (BCS) within the NSW Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water (DCCEEW).

 

“The DCCEEW concluded that this planning proposal would have a negative impact on biodiversity in this region and we believe Mr Scully has an obligation to follow the expert advice of his own government.

 

“The BCS said the conservation land, that council wants to downgrade to land use zones offering less protection and more development, should have the highest level of protection available outside a national park – the C2 Conservation Zone. How can the Minister ignore expert advice from the agency responsible for protecting biodiversity across NSW?

 

“Mr Scully, how can you wave through a rezoning that is flawed and not supported by the community or your government’s own experts? The BCS recommendation is the only way to protect this land for future generations.”

 

The groups are calling for the Planning Minister to reject the Central Coast Council recommendation:

 

• Adopt the advice from the BCS to rezone the deferred 7(a) land to C2.

 

• Protect the Central Coast’s visual landscape, Aboriginal heritage and COSS lands,

 

• Help to maintain the region’s biodiversity and green spaces,

 

• Retain the unique character and lifestyle of the Central Coast.

 

The following groups are calling on the Planning Minister to reject the planning proposal and asking Central Coast residents to join their campaign by writing to the Minister objecting to the council recommendation:

 

Community Environment Network; Central Coast Community Better Planning Group; Friends of COSS; Koolewong-Tascott Point Clare Progress Association; Kariong Progress Association; Macmasters Beach Progress Association; Springfield Residents Association; National Parks Association Central Coast; Peninsula Residents Association; Grow Urban Shade Trees; Copacabana Community Association; Australian Conservation Association Central Coast; Wagstaffe to Killcare Community Association; Gosford Waterfront Alliance; Voices of Central Coast; The Bays Community Association; Ourimbah Region Residents Association.