Council may review bushland zoning

Gosford Council may have to review the zoning of its bushland reserves as "recreation" under the draft Local Environment Plan (LEP).

Gosford Council's manager of integrated planning, Mr Eddie Love, has revealed that the Department of Planning has told it to "review its use of E (environmental) zones as soon as practical".

However, Mr Love suggested that there were no plans to do this before the LEP was gazetted.

Mr Love said: "Since the proposed Draft Gosford LEP 2009 was lodged by council with the Department of Planning in May, 2008, the Department released a Practice Note to guide how Environmental Zones should be applied under new LEPs.

"When the Department amended Draft Gosford LEP 2009 and certified it ready for public exhibition in January 2010, it commented that the draft plan is now inconsistent with the new Environmental Zones Practice Note.

"The Department requests that council review its use of E zones as soon as practical, which may result in future amendments to the LEP.

Mr Love said council was investigating all methods to manage "environmentally sensitive lands" in both private and public ownership through the new LEP and associated process.

"The LEP (template) E1 zone is designated for National Parks and Nature Reserves (State Government), hence if the E2 Environmental Conservation is designated for large areas of publicly-owned environmentally sensitive landscapes, there would be just two environmental zones available for all private land in the city with similar attributes.

These are currently under eight conservation type zones," Mr Love said.

Mr Love said council staff were considering whether this would diminish or preserve the environment values of these lands.

Mr Love said: that public reserves on the Peninsula were currently mostly zoned Open Space Recreation 6(a) under the current Local Environmental Plan, including foreshores, Woy Woy Oval, James Browne Oval, Rogers Park, Peninsula Leisure Centre, Blackwall Mountain reserve, Pearl Beach Arboretum and the Umina Recreation Area.

"The 6(a) zone allows for recreation uses; however these lands are managed under Plans of Management prepared with the community's input under the Local Government Act.

"The POMs set out the uses which council will allow on these areas, usually either recreation or natural bushland.

"These lands have been managed in this manner since 1993."

Mr Love said that they had "been placed into the comparable zone being RE1 Public Recreation" because "the LEP template does not contain a Public Natural Areas zone".

Media statement, 17 Mar 2010 Eddie Love, Gosford Council