WARNING BELLS SOUNDED OVER ALARMING SPECULATIVE GROWTH IN COASTAL POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Wednesday, 17 January 2001 10:00

Alarm bells over the projected massive population rise and associated growth in residential developments along the coast have been raised by the Total Environment Centre, following an inspection of local government settlement strategies that are meant to guide the future direction of planning up and down the coast.

Most of the strategies represent a wish list for developers, real estate agents and those councillors sympathetic to perpetual growth and development, said TEC natural areas campaigner Fran Kelly.

They are, in our view, developer-driven with land sharks set to make windfalls from the rezoning of environmentally sensitive land. Some of them unfortunately are already approved but could be redrawn, while others can be rejected if the NSW Government has the will, said Ms Kelly.

To justify the rezoning and massive growth in development, councils and developers are entrenching the myth that thousands of people are demanding to live on new estates in the most environmentally sensitive areas along the coast This is not an acceptable reason for envirnmental destruction and the local and wider community and visitors to the area do not want to see the coast changed beyond recognition, said Ms Kelly.

The whole planning process is back to front. Development is guided by past growth trends or hoped-for high growth rates by councils and developers, while the lands capability and suitability takes a back seat.

The result is that wetlands, headlands, foreshores, coastal lakes, estuaries, heritage sites, floodprone land and natural coastal bushland are being replaced by concrete, said Ms Kelly.
An urgent review and overhaul of coastal management practices needs to be undertaken by the NSW government, including the need to come up with a statutary blueprint that sets down firm rules and guidelines, applicable to all council areas along the coast, said Ms Kelly.