Source of Jetty retirement living revealed

Nationals’ attempt to quell outrage as draft plan becomes lightning rod for suspicion

Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh, Minister for Water, Property and Housing Melinda Pavey, Cr Paul Amos, Cr George Cecato and Commodore John Wait at the announcement of the Jetty Foreshore Project Steering Advisory Committee.

TRYING to regain control of the narrative around the Jetty Foreshore Precinct redevelopment, two MPs have been hitting the airways.

NSW Minister for Water, Housing and Water, Housing and Property Melinda Pavey and Coffs Harbour MP Gurmesh Singh have been on a mission to quell community outrage after a draft plan, released on Friday, raised the possibility of retirement living at the former Deep Sea Fishing Club.

On Monday, the pair released a joint-statement addressing the Coffs Harbour Jetty Foreshore Draft Concept Plan and reiterated there were no concrete plans for any part of the Jetty precinct.

The Plan was merely a tool to encourage "constructive community feedback".

"Nothing has been predetermined, the community's feedback will dictate the final outcome," they said.

The inclusion of retirement living in the draft plan overshadowed Friday's announcement of who would be sitting on the all-important Jetty Foreshore Project Advisory Steering Committee.

And the issue was further complicated by Ms Pavey responding to a heckler by saying it was "a council decision", before backtracking and indicating retirement living had in fact been suggested during the community consultation process.

However, who made the suggestion and how it came to be included in the draft became a lightning rod for suspicion from people against development at the site.

When invited to elaborate on who had first raised retirement living, Ms Pavey responded by way of a Department of Planning Industry and Environment spokesman who said community consultations were "overlaid with the advice provided by the Government's technical and commercial advisers".

The technical and commercial advisers identified "what could be feasibly delivered to achieve the published Project Objectives within the Precinct".

"Commercial land uses within the Precinct are important as the Government has committed to 100 per cent of the proceeds being reinvested back into community assets, social infrastructure and enhanced open space within the Precinct," the spokesperson said.

"This requires a sensible balance to be struck with other land uses proposed in the Precinct."

DPIE confirmed the 'commercial advisers' are commercial real-estate firm CBRE.

Both Ms Pavey and Mr Singh have since indicated that retirement living on the headland remained unlikely given the intense public reaction.