Letter to the Editor: Predictions for the Jetty

DEAR News Of The Area,

THERE have been voices urging people to take advice and information only from the State Planning Authority’s intentions for the Jetty Foreshores, when considering their own position and making a submission.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with listening to and taking advice from other members of the public and from other organisations such as Jetty Dunecare.

The staff at the exhibition in Jordan Esplanade had very few answers for many of the questions I asked.

Not one of them knew of the twelve-tonne concrete blocks plucked by storm waves from the breakwall and hurled into the inner harbour in recent years.

Not one of them had seen old photographs of cyclonic waves being driven over the railway line in the area in the past.

I wonder whether any readers have photographs of these events that this newspaper could publish?

It is wearying to read the repeated stories of overwhelming public opposition to the conversion of this piece of public land into private residential and commercial use, even on a limited scale.

How many more attempts will be made if this fails?

It seems likely that the exhibition process and the online submission process used this time will result in fewer submissions, but that cannot be interpreted as a sign of acquiescence by the public.

I wonder whether the touting of this exhibition as just a preliminary, seeking to modify the rules governing land use and development, means that the model presented may not be the final foreshores design, that the plans have yet to be made. This is clearly stated by our mayor in her letter to News Of The Area.

If what is proposed does go ahead, I predict years of temporary fences and access closures, a monstrous muddy mess, terrible acid sulfate soil problems with ineffective piecemeal treatment attempts by developers, the discovery that the existing erosion control structures are in need of repair, redevelopment and extension, the failure of these structures after ten to twenty years of sea level rise (which is reported at a low to moderate level in the study) and storm action.

I predict damage to buildings, foundations and drainage.

I predict calls for costly protective measures by residents who were shortsighted in their purchases.

I foresee even more empty shops and struggling businesses in areas away from the newly ‘chic’ Jetty Foreshore precinct.

None of the up-beat rosy futures portrayed are likely to become reality, and we will have lost a great public place and a vital natural responsive barrier to coastal erosion.

Regards,
Alan MELBOURNE,
Coffs Harbour.