In January the State Government launched the Central Coast Strategy.
The strategy has seven priorities. This article focuses on priority two.
Unlocking employment land and accelerating employment precincts
The Central Coast offers up to 30 per cent lower establishment costs per hectare than areas surrounding Sydney, making the region more attractive to large scale businesses, the strategy says.
It identifies Munmorah power station, the airport and other land at Warnervale as among the sites that could generate jobs, as well as land at Wyong and Mt Penang.
The strategy says the adjoining areas to the airport could be developed for new businesses such as aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, as well as subdivision for advanced manufacturing activities.
It add that these would be subject to land servicing and traffic management at Sparks Road and potential biodiversity constraints.
Further north, the former Munmorah Power Station site also has potential.
“The site, subject to remediation of contaminated lands, has potential for a range of industrial and manufacturing uses including recyclable energy production, heavy industry, biodiversity offsets and a large-scale battery energy storage facility,” the strategy says.
And then there is the combined area of the Wyong Employment Zone and Warnervale Business Park – 318 hectares.
The strategy says these areas close to the M1 Motorway and the Sydney to Brisbane freight line, make the area an ideal location for transport, freight, warehousing, logistics, recyclable energy generation and storage and manufacturing industries.
Based on similar business parks in NSW, an average of 2.8 businesses could be established per hectare, equating to around 900 businesses.
The strategy also identifies Somersby and the Mount Penang Parklands as ideally located at the Gosford junction of the M1 Motorway.
“The Mount Penang Employment Precinct will reach its potential as a significant employment hub once traffic and transport connectivity in the area is improved, as well as east toward Gosford,” the strategy says.
The Mount Penang Employment Precinct has about 25 hectares of employment land in two employment precincts that were formerly part of the broader Parklands but have been sold for employment generating uses.
“There are opportunities to future-proof Somersby and make it a more sustainable employment area by planning for bushfire resilience and promoting circular economy activities,” the strategy says.
“Despite these opportunities, there is only a relatively small supply of unconstrained, developable land remaining.
“New opportunities will need to capitalise on the need for local jobs and responses to changes in technology and supply changes.”
The strategy outlines eight recommended actions which have either begun or dated to start this financial year.
They are:
# Seek funding or exchange land to support biodiversity offset scheme.
# Develop government property strategy..
# Progress Central Coast Airport and Warnervale Employment Zone and coordination of plans.
# Progress Munmorah Power Station revitalisation and future land use.
# Undertake traffic analysis for Mount Penang Employment Precinct.
# Progress Mount Penang employment precinct and Somersby Growth Area.
# Progress Tuggerah urban and business centre.
# Undertake Southern and Northern Growth Corridor traffic studies.
The council has been working on a masterplan for Warnervale Airport which is expected to be tabled at a council meeting soon.
Work is progressing on a NSW Government proposal for a big battery at Munmorah power station which is currently still undergoing planning assessment.
See: Priorities one and three: https://www.cccouncilwatch.com.au/gosford-uni-to…/
