Get planning right with new scheme, says Mehrtens

The release of a "combined" planning scheme for the whole Central Coast would be an opportunity to address limits to infill development on the Peninsula and issues of non-compliance with planning guidelines, according to local councillor Richard Mehrtens.

Cr Mehrtens said he understood the Central Coast Council's consolidated planning scheme or Local Environmental Plan (LEP), produced by combining and rationalising the former Wyong and Gosford schemes, was due to be released in April.

The next step was to develop a brand new comprehensive LEP to cover the whole Central Coast local government area, which Cr Mehrtens said was "some time away".

"We have to use this opportunity to get the process right.

"The new comprehensive LEP will be the first big document council can use to get the future of the Central Coast right.

"We have to use the period when the consolidated LEP comes through to get the zonings right and ensure future development is sustainable in the consolidated LEP.

"We need to make sure things work nicely together so we have a Coast that makes sense.

"I think the hard thing is the council staff are trying to plug in two very different LEPS, they were not similar, they were not conducive," he said.

The comprehensive LEP will need to be mindful of the Peninsula's capacity to cope with too much more infill development, Cr Mehrtens said.

"I don't think the Peninsula can handle too much more infill development.

"We are already seeing just how hard it is with 35,000 people living in this densely packed area.

"Every time it rains the drainage and flooding issues present themselves and that shows just how much work needs to be done to get the infrastructure up to spec.

"I am hopeful there is some major investment into our roads.

"What people voted for at the last election was trying to get the basics right," he said.

Cr Mehrtens said he was also concerned about the number of non-complying developments being approved by Council.

"I think non-compliance is something that is going to have a major effect on development on the Peninsula," Cr Mehrtens said.

"If you have one development that has a 10 per cent variation to its set back, and then if the house next door or the house down the road gets an equal dispensation then you have cut out quite a chunk of separation between houses or between the road and the house," he said.

"It is a compounding problem, not just a one-off.

"A developer can point to a nearby development that has been approved with a variation to the development rules and they could see that as a precedent but it actually becomes a real problem when you have them next to each other which is what is likely to happen.

"Development on the Peninsula is only going to increase.

"We regularly have instances of single dwellings or even neighbouring dwellings being sold to a developer and you can end up with 12 villas where there used to be two homes.

"That is the situation we have to look at because if everything gets a variation then that becomes a compounding problem."

SOURCE:

Interview, 21 Mar 2018

Richard Mehrtens, Central Coast Council

Reporter: Jackie Pearson