DEAR News Of The Area,

THE NSW State Government, in its draft masterplan for the Jetty Foreshore, professes to be “not developing the precinct for profit”.

However, if the private developer intends to sell the railway land it will be driven by nothing but profit.

If history is anything to go by, the developer’s first move will be to attempt to increase their commercial return with a concerted attack on the height, bulk and density provisions of the plan. When the government’s “preferred developer” at the Barangaroo foreshores project tried this in Sydney, the City Council rejected all their proposals only to be dismissed as the consent authority by the government.

The Department of Planning then accepted the developer’s amendments root and branch, including the proposal of a mega casino for James Packer.

The final development bears little resemblance to the original concept, private interests and those of shareholders trumping public interest at every turn.

What was previously public land has become, in the words of the chief architect of the original prize winning scheme, an “enclave of privilege”.

I see no reason why the government will not treat us in the same cavalier fashion.

I for one would prefer to see continued Council management of the foreshores with incremental improvements over time.

Regards,
Frank SCAHILL,
Coffs Coast.