Central Coast Council votes 7-6 to advance Old Sydney Town plan

Central Coast Council voted 7-6 on 27 October to send a development application rezoning the former Old Sydney Town site at Somersby to the New South Wales government’s gateway determination process, moving World Cultural Tourism Village’s redevelopment plan a step closer to approval, the Newcastle Herald reported.

Why it matters

For Central Coast developers, the vote tests the long-held line against housing west of the M1, which opponents in the chamber said the plan breaks. World Cultural Tourism Village (WCTV) bought the disused 120-hectare site in 2018, 15 years after Old Sydney Town, the open-air colonial-history museum that opened in 1975, closed down. According to the Herald, WCTV’s plan keeps and refurbishes several of the original structures, among them the brick kiln, windmill and dockyard, plus St Philip’s Church, the jail, the time tunnel display and a cluster of settler cottages, folding them into a visitor centre, cafe, restaurant, museum, function centre and art gallery alongside the neighbouring Australian Reptile Park. The vote had already been deferred once, on 4 August, before councillors re-examined it on 27 October.

The numbers

Thirty percent of the site, 256 residential lots, is the most contested element of the plan. WCTV says the housing is needed to help fund the tourism and conservation work. A further 35 hectares, 34 percent of the site, would be rezoned as conservation land, and about 15,000 square metres is earmarked for car parking serving the precinct and the Reptile Park. WCTV also argues the project would create 579 ongoing jobs and bring in an extra $76.6m in tourism spending each year, figures that are the developer’s own projections rather than independently verified.

What’s next

Budgewoi Ward councillor Doug Eaton backed the plan, telling the council it was “a win on environmental factors, it’s a win for tourism and employment and indeed it’s a win for housing.” Eaton also dismissed arguments that housing could not proceed west of the M1 Pacific Motorway, noting Somersby already has nearby industrial and commercial development. Councillors John Mouland and Jared Wright voted in favour while flagging reservations. Mouland said he had been advised that the Reptile Park’s agreement with WCTV gave the park greater long-term certainty and a path to future expansion, which was why he reluctantly backed the gateway request despite concerns over the housing component’s scale, traffic, biodiversity and unresolved contamination and pipeline-safety questions. The Entrance Ward’s Corinne Lamont and Gosford West’s Jane Smith voted against sending the application forward. The gateway determination request now goes to the state government, which decides whether the rezoning proceeds to formal assessment.