Kingscliff a town, not a village community told

Council is currently in the draft planning stages of what should happen next for the coastal town

PLANNING: What's in store for Kingscliff in the next 30 years? Picture: Contributed

FORGET its village moniker, Kingscliff is already a town and shaping up to be the key hub of growth for the Tweed Coast.

And that is before the new $534 million Tweed Valley Hospital is factored into the equation.

The future of Kingscliff is currently under discussion, with two round-table community consultation meetings hosted by Tweed Shire Council today, attracting a strong response from residents.

Council is seeking feedback on its draft Kingscliff Locality Plan on public exhibition, with two community round-tables held today, and two more scheduled for September 18 at the Kingscliff Bowls Club.

Despite the huge interest, the new hospital is not included in the draft plan, with council set to update the document pending additional information from the NSW Government.

Council's urban design coordinator John Lynch said the major planning document was a chance to leave a legacy for the region, especially as the town's population continues to grow.

"Kingscliff by virtue of its population being 9000 is actually defined in department planning terms as a town now, it's not a village," Mr Lynch said.

"The locality plan is a council and community document which sets the planning framework and blueprint for about a 30-year horizon. That's about as far out as we look for those demographic projections.

"It's a great way to check and enrich what we've already done and we can take that through to the final planning process."

During the sessions, participants are being briefed on the five key strategies of the draft plan: environment and heritage; town centre; economy and employment; housing; and open space community.

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Kingscliff's height limits were top of mind for many, including local resident Andrew Hogan who said he was concerned about changing the height and density of the area.

"I don't want Kingscliff to end up like the southern end of the Gold Coast," Mr Hogan said.

"There's absolutely no reason to have a density increase just on Marine Pde, there's so much land out behind us and to the south that it doesn't need to be focused there.

"The roads here are already terrible and any increase in construction traffic plus residential traffic would make it worse."

Kingscliff community members met with Tweed Shire Council to discuss the Kingscliff Locality Plan. Picture: Aisling Brennan

Another Kingscliff resident, Leonie Levis, said it was important for her to understand what council's plan was.

"I'm just here to find out what the future of Kingscliff is and what the plans for Kingscliff are and to be informed," she said.

"It's going to evolve and grow with all the new developments, so I just hope the new plan is done well."

Mr Lynch said it was important both council and the community-at-large gets the draft plan right.

"When you look at the infrastructure and the facilities that are in Kingscliff, we've got quite a diverse and active town centre," Mr Lynch said.

"There's a Tafe, a high school and primary schools, there's a waste water treatment facility that has been accommodating that growth.

"All those things come together to assert Kingscliff as a sub-regional town that meets the needs of other small surrounding settlements as well, including Fingal, Chinderah and even as far down as Cabarita and Pottsville.

"If all the greenfield development areas were greenfield and developed to the density that we're talking about we'd be talking about a population increase of 14000."

The selected site of the $534 million Tweed Valley Hospital at Cudgen.

New Tweed Valley Hospital

Despite the Tweed Valley Hospital being a hot topic on social media since the site location at Cudgen was announced earlier this year, Mr Lynch said the draft locality plan didn't include any information about the hospital and its impacts on the region.

"When council endorsed the plan to go on exhibition, the site hadn't been selected yet," Mr Lynch said.

"Moving forward and going into the next alliteration of the plan we are going to look at the implications of that but because it's being run as a separate process through the state government, we can only put in the information we have.

"We recognise that it has major ramifications and considerations that we need to look at in context of the locality plan.

"Obviously there's a lot of traffic management issues to do with the hospital as well but we've already got the Tweed Coast Rd development strategy that recognises we need to understand the implications of that plan. We're looking at updating the plan as we go along."

For more information about the Kingscliff Locality Plan, or to book into an information session, visit www.yoursaytweed.com.au/kingsclifflocalityplan