North Tuncurry
MID COAST COUNCIL - WORIMI COUNTRY
DEVELOPMENT PROFILE
This enormous development would see the clearing of 100 hectares of beachfront bushland in North Tuncurry, between Lakes Way and Nine Mile Beach, now known as the North Tuncurry Urban Release Area. Developer Landcom has applied for the rezoning of 615 hectares of Crown Land over the next two decades, and put forward a proposal to develop a 100 hectare portion of the area.
Landcom’s plans include 2,100 low- and medium-density dwellings expected to accommodate 4,500 new residents, as well as a new town centre, golf course, more than 6 hectares of open space parkland and a new 13-hectare industrial precinct.
The state-led rezoning would require the Minister for Planning to amend the Great Lakes Local Environmental Plan 2014, and the Department of Planning and Environment is the planning authority for the application. MidCoast Council will then be responsible for assessing development applications for construction on the site.
WHERE IS IT UP TO?
The Department of Planning and Environment is currently conducting a Rezoning Study. Public submissions on the rezoning application have closed. Following a response from Landcom, the Department will finalise its report and make a recommendation to the Minister on whether the rezoning should proceed.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
- Approximate area to be cleared: 100 hectares, with potential for more
- The Biodiversity Certification report delivered to the Department of Planning and Environment notes the presence on the site of at least 15 threatened species, including the Tuncurry Midge Orchid, a critically endangered species known only in a small area immediately around the planned development site north of Tuncurry.
- While this development is being widely promoted as a solution to local housing pressures, only 10% of the planned dwellings are designed to be affordable.
- There are significant concerns about the pressures on services and infrastructure that will be created by the impacts of increasing the local population by roughly 20% including traffic congestion on the single 631m bridge connecting Tuncurry to Forster.
HABITAT FOR:
- Green Turtle
- Pied Oystercatcher
- Brush-tailed Phascogale
- Eastern Pygmy-possum
- Eastern Osprey
- Little Lorikeet
- Squirrel Glider
- New Holland Mouse
- Eastern False Pipistrelle
- Eastern Blossom Bat
- Little Bentwing-bat
- Eastern Bentwing-bat
- Eastern Freetail-bat
- Greater Broad-nosed Bat
- Grey-headed Flying-fox.