Brisbane Ave land sale report date remains unknown

The timing of a report that will determine whether or not the reserve in Brisbane Ave, Umina, remains community land is in the hands of the facilitator who conducted recent public meetings.

The Brisbane Ave reserve was one of 10 reserves throughout the former Gosford local government area that are the first of 25 to be considered for reclassification from community land to operational land.

Once reclassified as operational, the parcels of land could be sold off to private developers.

Community land cannot be sold, but council is free to sell operational land.

Campaigners, including the Community Environment Group, Save Central Coast Reserves and local facebook networks, have been fighting to keep their local reserves since the now-dismissed Gosford Council put forward its "Land Sale Strategy" in September last year.

Urban campaign manager for the Total Environment Centre, Mr Lee Martin, said for a very long time, many local councils have been reclassifying community land to operational in order to sell the land.

"They decide community land is a cash cow and its conversion to operational is usually a sign the council wants to divest itself of that land," Mr Martin said.

"It is a red flag," he said.

"Treating community land as a bank is a very narrow perspective of its value and once sold, it is an asset that the community can never get back," he said.

The former Gosford Council and, more recently, the Central Coast Council, have not provided the public with a set of written criteria or terms of reference against which it will assess the value of retaining reserves, including the Brisbane Ave land, as community land.

"Council requested the consultant review all factors and issues relevant to each particular land parcel and provide feedback," according to a statement issued by council chief Mr Ron Noble.

"The relevant factors and issues differ between sites.

"Council has held public meetings to allow the community an opportunity to provide information - either for or against a reclassification - before any formal processes start.

"At this stage, the timing of the report is dependent on the independent facilitator who conducted the recent public meetings."

In the absence of terms of reference or a written strategy from council, community groups have referred to the NSW Local Government Act and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.

They have pointed out hat a note to the Local Government Act states: "The purpose of classification is to identify clearly that land which should be kept for use by the general public (community) and that land which need not (operational).

"The major consequence of classification is that it determines the ease or difficulty with which land may be alienated by sale, leasing or some other means."

The Act also specifies that a council must arrange a public hearing under section 57 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 to reclassify community land as operational land.

Initially, the public meetings organised by the Central Coast Council for July 6 were called public hearings.

Community Environment Network general manager Ms Jane Smith said she considered the council's management of the Land Sale Strategy "a debacle".

"Up until a week before they took place, council had been advertising public hearings then they were changed to public meetings and people arrived without any information about how to register to speak or what the process was going to be," Ms Smith said.

She said she believed a resolution passed by Gosford Council last September meant that the council was required to have a formal public hearing, not a public meeting.

The Local Government Act (Section 47G Public Hearings) specifies that no later than four days after receiving a report from a person presiding at a public meeting as to the result of the hearing, the council must make a copy of the report available for inspection by the public.

There was no such requirement after a public meeting, she said.

Ms Smith said the network had followed the same process of reclassifying community land when it was carried out by the former Wyong Council and, although unhappy with the outcomes, the process had been much clearer.

"Wyong Council held public hearings with a facilitator and people had to register to speak, the facilitator then wrote a report which was presented to council," she said.

Ms Smith said the time taken between the public hearings and the presentation of the report to council was no more than two months for 399 parcels of land.

"So you would expect the process for 10 sites to be easier," she said.

When it receives the consultant's report, according to the Local Government Act, Central Coast Council may resolve to reclassify the land to operational "only if it is satisfied that the land has been found to be unsuitable for the provision, extension or augmentation of public amenities and public services".

The reasons it can use to justify its decision to reclassify community land as operational, according to the Act could include: the size of the land; the shape of the land; the topography of the land; the location of the land; or the difficulty of providing public access to the land.

The council must specify in the resolution the grounds on which it is satisfied the land is unsuitable to keep as community land.

Before making a resolution to reclassify community land, the council must give public notice of the resolution and give the public 28 days to make submissions to council.

Legally, the public notice must also include the terms of the proposed resolution and a description of the public land concerned.

Media statement, 1 Aug 2016

Ron Noble, Central Coast Council

Interview, 4 Aug 2016

Lee Martin, Total Environment Centre

Interview, 4 Aug 2016

Jane Smith, Community Environment Network

Reporter: Jackie Pearson