Frustrated developers head to Court

As Central Coast Council continues to obstruct Central Coast property developers and builders in approving Development Applications frustrated developers are taking action in the Land and Environment Court.

Currently 15 cases have been listed for mention and another 8 are heading to court.

Apart from industrial land that is depriving Central Coast people of employment there is a huge backlog of residential subdivisions which council is deliberately holding back as well as simple building blocks throughout the Coast where local builders face delays of up to 12 months.

One case in point is the Wadalba East Landowners Group who have been put through the wringer by this council.

While NSW has a housing crisis with people being forced to sleep in their cars, on the Central Coast there are over 3,000 potential residential sites that could be approved immediately. 

In the end most, if not all of these cases will be approved by the Land and Environment Court and Central Coast ratepayers will be footing a colossal legal bill.

Apart from health and other government employment the construction industry on the Central Coast is the largest employer with 13,307 people employed as of 30 June 2022.

 Also, the number of construction businesses totalled 6,364 making it by far and away the largest employment sector. The building and construction industry on the Central Coast has always been the backbone of the regional economy.

In nearly every case across the region environmental issues take preference over reality.

As an example, in the old Gosford Council area the Somersby Industrial Estate, an industrial area zoned for industry in the 1960s, saw an environmental culture take hold with huge areas of industrial land being treated as quasi national park and quarantined, even though privately owned. 

The so-called endangered Somersby Mint Bush and some Aboriginal rock carvings have been used to actually stop industrial land being used to build a factory.