Message From the Chair – Spring 2023
A major focus for Regional Development Australia Central Coast (RDACC) this quarter has been addressing the lack of affordable housing on the Central Coast.
Affordable housing is a growing crisis across our country, and we are well aware of how a lack of affordable housing here on the Coast is impacting economic growth across our region and contributing to labour shortages across multiple industries.
Building on the success of the inaugural Central Coast Housing Forum held together with Business NSW and Pacific Link Housing last year, we have continued to highlight the impact of housing affordability gaps for our region and work collaboratively to bring innovative solutions to the table.
One such solution is the development of granny flats or secondary dwellings on existing blocks.
The Central Coast has been identified as having the greatest number of potential sites available (17.2%) across any of the major centres on our Eastern Seaboard and the time to act is now!
We’re urging our local planning authorities to immediately investigate what can be done to streamline the process for property owners with the potential to house secondary dwellings so that we can encourage as many residents as possible to consider this as a viable prospect for them.
We’re also calling for our planning authorities to encourage high density housing options around existing infrastructure and transport hubs.
Actions including raising average apartment heights in and around places like the Gosford CBD and other high-density employment locations and facilitating development near existing transport hubs such as the high volume of undeveloped land around Tuggerah station, provide another cost-effective and clever option to help address our housing shortage.
With forecasts predicting we’ll need close to 30,000 new dwellings here on the Central Coast within the next two decades, we need to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and work together address this critical issue for our growing community.
On a positive note, it has been a pleasure to highlight the quality development and investment happening in our local community, with the $45M Gosford RSL redevelopment featured in our Quality Development on the Coast series.
A collaboration between WMK Architecture, North Construction & Building and the Gosford RSL Club, our community eagerly anticipates the opening of this landmark facility in early 2024.
We were also pleased to hold another Regional Roundtable event this quarter, as we advance our efforts to bring together our region’s key decision makers across local, state and federal government and business agencies, to improve long-term economic development outcomes for the Central Coast.
As we move into the final months of 2023, we will continue our work to develop a strong, connected region that supports our economic growth and wellbeing by collaborating with a broad cross-section of local stakeholders and regional leaders.
As always, we will strive to guide a coordinated and collaborative approach to the development of our region and we thank you for your support.
Lawrie McKinna
Chair