St Huberts canals to be reclassified

Gosford Council is to prepare a draft Local Environmental Plan for the reclassification of the drainage reserves of St Huberts Island.

The land will be reclassified from "community land" to "operational land" following its meeting on December 2.

The St Huberts Island drainage reserves, or canals, were unzoned and had a development control plan applicable to them which set out the development criteria for the density, location and design of pontoon jetties, the council was told in a staff report.

However, as the land was classified "community land" and had no plan of management, the construction of such structures was prohibited.

The staff report recommended that the canals be reclassified as "operational land".

The report also identified an anomaly in the Gosford Planning Scheme Ordinance (GPSO), which allowed development within certain unzoned land with consent, but stated that this did not apply to the St Huberts Island canals.

The ordinance will be amended to fix the anomaly.

The reclassification will allow the erection of boat mooring structures within the reserves

Council agenda EP 044, December 9