The State Government announced on Friday, April 12, that Woy Woy had been added to Wyong, Tuggerah and Gosford as areas near train lines that will be targetted for increased housing density.
This comes despite a letter from Council-under-administration CEO David Farmer asking that the Central Coast not to be included in the Transport Oriented Development (TOD) reform.
The planning reform would be called State Environment Planning Policies or SEPP.
The letter, endorsed by administrator Rik Hart at the February meeting stated:
“Council requests that the Gosford, Tuggerah and Wyong TOD locations be excluded from the future TOD SEPP application due to the low opportunity for housing yield,…., limited land application for the provisions, and the existing approval frameworks in place that have a more locally based strategic direction for these centres.”
At that stage, Woy Woy wasn’t part of the plans.
It is now.
And Wyong, Tuggerah and Gosford also remain part of the plan.
Farmer listed more than 13 reasons why the Central Coast areas should be excluded.
Those reasons included:
# The eastern side of the Pacific Highway in Wyong only having one ingress/egress to/from the Pacific Highway.
# Wyong Town Centre having a large number of heritage items within the proposed TOPP SEPP application area which could be placed at risk by inappropriate development.
# limited opportunity for development at Tuggerah despite the proposed new provisions.
# Car parking issues on the Coast where more than 50 per cent of households have more than one car so until public transport is improved, a reduction in car parking requirements in new development will increase street parking and degrade the public domain.
But the State Government announced on April 12 that:
“The NSW Government’s Transport Orientated Development planning reforms estimated to deliver over 170,000 more well-located, well-designed and well-built homes throughout the Sydney, the Illawarra, Hunter and Central Coast begin this month.”
In December last year the government identified 31 stations across 13 local government areas around which new housing was to be located within 400m.
Since then, it says it has worked with the local councils and has added another six stations to the list.
Woy Woy is among that list of six which also included Cardiff, Cockle Creek, Belmore, Lakemba, and Punchbowl.
“These stations were all suggested by councils for inclusion,” the State Government press release said.
“Throughout the consultation process, consideration has been given to existing infrastructure capacity or planned upgrades that will support increased density.
“These councils that worked with the department will be permitted to phase the introduction of the TOD SEPP on certain sites to complete master planning and more detailed work on their plan,” the State Government said.
The Coast was included in a list of councils that will develop local housing plans.
Wyong and Woy Woy TOD SEPP sites are to be completed this month while Tuggerah and Gosford have been given until July.
Want to read the CEO’s letter? Go here: https://centralcoast.infocouncil.biz/…/OC_27022024_AGN…
The third paragraph of the letter from Farmer incorrectly states the Coast has an elected council.
