THE Refined Masterplan for the Coffs Jetty Revitalisation project presented to the community in December 2022 serves to establish the zoning, possible uses and height limits of the buildings, Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh told News Of The Area.

“It’s too early to go into specific details of the development such as how many levels of basement parking there could be for the two six-storey tourist accommodation buildings, for example,” said Mr Singh.

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“That would happen in the development application stage.”

Mr Singh said it is also too early to detail exactly what style of tourist accommodation these buildings will provide.

“Tourist accommodation could mean a hotel or serviced apartments, but essentially, we are likely to see a mix of types of short-stay accommodation.”

These ‘iconic’ buildings are to be located adjacent to the jetty walkway as part of a streetscape activated by a number of strategically located shops, cafes and restaurants.

“We’re a long way off detailing what it’s all going to physically look like, however design guidelines and a design review process will be incorporated into the refined masterplan to ensure that all future development adheres to the Vision,” said Mr Singh.

“Given the sheer volume of interest in this development, a rendered view was presented to the public, whereas ordinarily in planning proposals we would see just lines and boxes.”

The plan will be lodged for DA in the first quarter of 2023, and it is expected to take up to two years to have an approved final plan.

“At that stage work can begin and a more granular picture of what the area will look like will begin to come to life,” said Mr Singh.

Project Steering Advisory Committee member Cath Fowler told NOTA that the refined plan shows the results of the community consultation have been listened to and incorporated into this latest plan.

“We’ve seen the built form components reduced in mass and footprint particularly on the fenced off railway land,” she said.

Cath believes the revised master plan seeks to alleviate parking pressures further by spreading out activation of spaces across the whole precinct and adding in more formalised parking.

“Over 50 percent of the previously fenced off rail lands is dedicated as public domain, green open space, the new alignment of Jordan Esplanade and extra parking.

“While some members of the community expressed in the consultation their concerns about the building heights in the precinct, others responded to the survey suggesting they thought the heights could be higher in parts.

“So while you can never please everyone, in my view, a middle ground that aligns with the majority of the survey feedback has been presented.

“Limiting six-storey development to only two specific locations and ensuring its tourism accommodation that also has publicly accessible spaces such as cafes or retail allows the space to become a vibrant, active area, while still offering locals a family friendly inviting space.

“The rest of the built form has been capped at a maximum of four-storeys, with diverse and key worker housing proposed as part of the mix to ensure inclusiveness of the limited residential development.

“This ensures the character of the area is retained as the allowable heights are below the buildings immediately on the other side of the railway line,” said Cath.

Commenting as a concerned citizen who has lived in Coffs for 40 years, retired land surveyor Bruce Weir has had significant exposure to land development and town planning issues in general.

Bruce has participated in the community discussion regarding the Jetty Foreshores development since Councillor Sally Townley began speaking about the development back in 2017.

“My opposition to what is being proposed in the foreshores is founded on the belief that under the Compact City Policy currently in place, Coffs Harbour will need all the recreational space it can possibly find, so building large scale residential and tourist accommodation buildings down there is not in the best interests of our community in the long term,” Bruce told News Of The Area.

Bruce noted that under the policy, much of the land between the town centre and the harbour is zoned for medium to high density residential and anyone living in this area will need access to quality recreational spaces.

“There is a tagline in the Compact City Policy saying, ‘celebrate the harbour as a playground’.

“I don’t believe the masterplan currently presented to the community does this.

“In relation to the two six-storey buildings, I would say that we have been continually told that there will be no high-rise development in the foreshores precinct.”

In the minutes of PSAC meeting 5, page 2, Dajon Veldman (representing the lead architect McGregor Coxall), in responding to questions on high rise is noted as saying: “high rise is relevant to context, in a city the number of storeys for high rise is different to that in a regional town”.

“In the precinct bounded by the railway line and the ocean there is currently nothing higher than two storeys,” said Bruce.

“So what other context do we have to judge by and surely contextually six-storeys is high rise?”

By Andrea FERRARI