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Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart said he would have to take questions about the airport masterplan and Porters Creek Wetland ‘on notice’ because he was not across the detail.
By Jacquelene Pearson
A masterplan for the airport at Warnervale features in the CC Council’s Draft Operational Plan for 2023-24, which is currently on public exhibition, but Administrator Rik Hart said he was not across the detail when asked about the masterplan following the March council meeting.
At the March council meeting Mr Hart moved to adopt the staff recommendation to place the draft operational plan on exhibition.
The council’s draft operational plan states that the airport masterplan is to be adopted by December 31, 2023.
“Continued development of an airport masterplan” is listed as one of the 110 actions in the draft operational plan.
In October 2022, the Central Coast Airport was listed when the council released a prospectus of “key enabling projects”. The airport featured along with the Warnervale Business Precinct and nine other major projects.
The operational plan includes expenditure of $1.939 million over the next two financial years on the airport.
Mr Hart previously declined to answer The Point’s questions about the airport when we asked for an update on the outcomes of a Request for Information (RFI) from the general aviation industry to determine future demand for the services and facilities at Central Coast Airport.
The RFI was published in January 2022, closed in March 2022, and the outcomes have not been made public.
Any expansion of the airport at Warnervale could have significant impacts on the Porters Creek Wetland – the region’s largest freshwater wetland, a backup water supply for the community during drought, a filtration system for the Tuggerah Lakes and Wyong River and habitat for multiple threatened and endangered species.
Prior to the suspension of the 15 elected Central Coast Councillors in October 2020, the council was about to sign off on a Conservation Agreement (CA) with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) which would have permanently protected the wetland.
Despite concerted efforts by community groups including the Community Environment Network (CEN) council did not pursue the CA and did not even bother to contact the BCT to let them know it was not going ahead.
Porters Creek Wetland is currently classified as operational land even though Mr Hart said it would be protected by NSW Government State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs). As operational land it could be sold without community consultation.
The recent public exhibition of the draft Greater Warnervale Structure Plan revealed that significant encroachments into the wetland are proposed by Central Coast Council with little regard for its ecological importance.
A submission in response to the draft structure plan from the Community Environment Network (CEN), said it did not believe the draft plan adequately addressed neither the presence of, nor the need to protect, Ecologically Endangered Communities and threatened species within the study area, the need to define local biodiversity corridors, and, particularly, the need to protect Porters Creek Wetland.
According to CEN, one of the figures depicting the wetland in the structure plan “grossly underestimated the size of EECs and threatened species present in the draft structure plan study area.
“The size of the freshwater wetland on coastal floodplain which is meant to depict the location of the Porters Creek Wetland is inaccurate and should not be relied upon for any future decision making about land use and zoning,” the CEN submission said.
“The proposed connector road between Watanobbi and Warnervale (Link Road) must not go ahead. It simply poses too great a risk to the wetland which is already having its viability and health damaged by stormwater runoff.
“The proposed route for the link road runs along the eastern side of the wetland. Encroachment during construction of the road and the ongoing impacts of the road would pose substantial damage to the viability of the wetland.
“CEN strenuously objects to Porters Creek Wetland being depicted on maps throughout the draft structure plan as part of Precinct 1 Wyong Employment Zone.
“We urge Central Coast Council to depict Porters Creek Wetland accurately in mapping as separate from any of the precincts covered by the structure plan. Furthermore, CEN will continue to campaign for Central Coast Council to reclassify the whole of Porters Creek Wetland from operational to community land and finalise the Conservation Agreement with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) which was near completion in 2020.
“We believe the draft structure plan in its current form misleads the public about proposed precinct boundaries and their impacts on the wetland.
“We object to responsibility being given to the “developer” to conduct a review of land zoning within the local biodiversity corridors, as part of precinct-based rezoning investigations.
“The statement that stormwater management is to be designed in a manner that protects the ecological value of the Porters Creek Wetland is grossly inadequate, particularly when the structure plan appears to leave it to the discretion of the developer to define ‘designed in a manner that protects the ecological value’ of the wetland.
“Central Coast Council has already walked away from the stormwater harvesting that CEN considers to be a prerequisite put in place by the NSW Government as a condition of any further development in the Porters Creek Wetland catchment.
“Council, in recent years, has replaced reasonable plans for stormwater harvesting to protect the wetland with nature-based solutions’ that don’t appear to have come to fruition.
“Mapping of Porters Creek Wetland since the early 2000s indicates that it is already in a fragile state. There is a real risk, particularly in warmer-wetter climate change scenarios, that the wetland could literally drown if stormwater measures to protect its ecological value are inadequate.”
According to CEN, there are inconsistencies and redundancies in the language of the draft structure plan which make it difficult for residents and ratepayers to accurately understand its full implications.
“For example, the current population of the study area is approx. 20,000 and the future population is estimated as up to around 37,600. Does this mean the total population of the area could be as many as 57,600? If so, how is such a dense population in any way compatible with Central Coast Council’s ongoing yet opaque master planning for the expansion of the air strip at Warnervale?”
CEN said it was also concerned about further incursions into the Porters Creek Wetland in the form of proposed public and private schools and a proposed commercial business park.
“What justification is there for locating a commercial business park in Porters’ Creek Wetland? How can such a proposition be in any way sustainable?
“It is both surprising and disconcerting to read in the draft structure plan that the airport expansion “aviation hub” and the “Business and Education” precinct – each of which encroach on a protected wetland – are described as key transformative development projects in the plan.
“The Central Coast community awaits the release of a cogent business plan to justify Central Coast Council’s ongoing expenditure on the airport,” the CEN submission said.
The Point will send some questions in writing to the council’s media unit in coming weeks in relation to the airport masterplan and the future protection of Porters Creek Wetland. We will report the council’s response when it is received.
