The latest ideas for Gosford Waterfront and stadium precinct include:
- One option only for the public to see
- Gosford Bowling Club replaced with a hotel
- A round “public building” beside Drifters where the public wharf is now. (Is this where we will play two-up on Anzac Day?)
- Five multi storey buildings jutting into Brisbane Water between the wharf and the railway line.
- These buildings will house residences, retail, and dry boat storage; all with great views south and west over the railway and north over the Brian McGowan Bridge.
- A ferry terminal over by the rail bridge
- A walkway atop a seawall encircling the development
- A pedestrian bridge at Poppy Park to cross the Central Coast Highway to get from the waterfront regional park to the waterfront.
- An amphitheatre between Drifters and Eat St
- An expanded water playground outside Gosford Pool.
Yes, it is the 2022 plan for the Gosford waterfront.
These plans have been published regularly since 2010 and this one includes the stadium precinct as well.
This latest plan will go to the Council-under-administration meeting on September 27 for permission to involve the community in giving some feedback on the ideas.
In April of last year, Council decided to look at three options for the area.
Council has since talked to “stakeholders” and they all agree with just the one option to go to community consultation.
Those stakeholders were described as the Greater Sydney Commission, Government Departments and other relevant stakeholders – who weren’t named.
So, now the ever patient public gets to see only one option.
But you’ll be pleased to know there has been extensive analysis of the three options.
Both discarded options focused on job creation and tourism and one had some residential housing and the second one had no residential housing.
If the Administrator Rik Hart agrees to the next steps; the council will seek community input into the draft Waterfront Masterplan and Stadium Concept Plan (the highlights described above).
“It is not proposed that Council would invest significant funding to deliver the Waterfront revitalisation proposal,” the report to Mr Hart says.
Rather, it wants $8.5M from the State Government to write up the business proposal.
“The scale of the proposal is beyond that which could be successfully delivered by Council,” the report states.
“Once the business case has been prepared to confirm the viability of the proposal, it is recommended that delivery of the proposal be undertaken by an appropriate NSW Government development corporation, as was the case for Honeysuckle in Newcastle and Barangaroo in Sydney.”
Well plan number ???? for the redevelopment of Gosford waterfront…from memory the first plan was 1989.
Having reviewed the concept plan it has a few positives and a large number of negatives that hopefully can be rectified through community consultation.
The overarching issue with any concept plan does it provide a significant reason to visit Gosford and is there a major point/points of difference which will make this site iconic .
Issues which need to be addressed
1. Don’t build a hotel on Gosford Bowling club site, the land should be used to allow the stadium to expand in seats to be able to attract major sporting events eg Asian football Cup games. Currently the seating capacity at 20,052 is in adequate to be eligible to secure such major events. You need a minimum of 25,000.
2. The Stadium precinct should be seen as a separate plan and all investigation undertaken to maximise the benefits of the expansion redevelopment of the stadium eg Hall of Fame etc
3. The conference Centre should be connected to a hotel and should be multipurpose.
4. There is nothing in the concept which provides new reasons or a point of difference to attract people to visit Gosford. Consideration should be given to the development of public iconic sculptures similar to Chicago’s famous Crown Fountain which is a very large LED sculpture with a reflecting pool or Cloud Gate , the mirrored bean shaped sculpture as a couple of examples.
5. A viewing tower with cafe/restaurants which can take advantage of the fantastic views of Brisbane Water and the Coastal Open space system.
6. The construction of an iconic building by the waterfront like a Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain as an example. We need to learn from other success stories around the world and in Australia to achieve the best outcome for Gosford and the Central Coast…this is our last chance.