BRUCE Weir, who was at the initial announcement of the Jetty Foreshores revitalisation proposal and has actively campaigned against it ever since, has launched another scathing Facebook attack on local and state government officials.
“A decision on the foreshores is done and dusted,” Mr Weir wrote.
“Despite not one senior bureaucrat or Government Minister ever coming to this community to discuss the issue, the next and apparently final step in the ‘residentialisation’ of the foreshore is presented to us by way of a press release out of Sydney in the early hours of the morning.
“The finalisation documents suddenly appeared on the NSW planning portal in the early hours of Friday, September 26th, with no announcement and no indication of who had the final say in the approval, be it Minister Scully or Secretary Fishburn.”
In a poll held during the last local government election, more than 60 per cent of respondents voted against residential development at the Jetty Foreshore and, when the proposal was put out for public exhibition, 61 per cent objected to it, for a variety of reasons.
NOTA asked the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPIE) and the City of Coffs Harbour if any specific analysis had been done to show how the average resident and ratepayer would benefit, particularly when there appeared to be substantial costs to rate payers.
The DPIE replied that the project “is expected to deliver a range of public benefits, including improved public open space, enhanced walking and cycling connections, community facilities and affordable housing contributions”.
The City responded with a statement that said:
“The approved rezoning establishes a framework for the future development of the precinct and includes a range of initiatives intended to deliver benefits for the community.
“The rezoning determination has only just been announced by the State Government and the City has not modelled possible outcomes as the actual form of various potential proposals will not become clear until the Development Application process/es.
”The City is of course an interested party in the Jetty Foreshores revitalisation and made a formal submission on the rezoning proposal but had no consent authority in the determination.”
A spokesperson for DPIE also said, “The proposal provides for around 200 tourist accommodation rooms, along with retail, food and beverage, and community uses, helping to attract more visitors to the area and support local businesses, jobs and economic activity.
“Future development will also be supported by significant investment in local infrastructure, including foreshore park upgrades, road improvements and broader community infrastructure contributions.
“The Department carefully considered all submissions received during the public exhibition and made a number of changes in response to the community feedback, including reducing building heights and strengthening affordable housing requirements.”
A spokesperson for the group Foreshore For All said that the Coffs Harbour Jetty Foreshore Precinct Guidelines document was packed with “weasel words”.
“There is enough wriggle room in the so-called control sections that virtually anything can be approved,” said a spokesperson for Foreshore For All.
“Then, the State-assessed Rezoning Proposal Finalisation Report document is a classic exercise in marking your own homework and giving yourself top marks for doing what you want to do and ignoring the public.”
Mr Weir observed: “There is a fantastic quote from Bill Bryson, talking about America in the late 1950’s – ‘We were entering a world where things were done because they offered a better return, not a better world.’
“In Coffs Harbour we don’t even know who is going to get the better return.
“It doesn’t appear to be the average ratepayer or resident.”
The relevant documents can be accessed at https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/ppr/finalisation/coffs-harbour-jetty-foreshore.
By Andrew VIVIAN
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