Bateau Bay: Decision imminent on Uniting’s $148M Nareen Gardens redevelopment

Residents against a controversial redevelopment of Nareen Gardens have made a last ditch plea for stricter conditions around construction noise and emissions, with a decision expected in days.

A decision is imminent on Uniting's plans to redevelop Nareen Gardens retirement village at Bateau Bay. Picture: supplied

The Hunter Central Coast Regional Planning Panel is expected to deliver its decision on controversial plans to redevelop the Nareen Gardens retirement village at Bateau Bay within days.

It comes as several residents addressed the panel’s public meeting on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to argue against the whopping $148 million redevelopment on the grounds it is too big, will cause “six years of hell” during construction including excessive noise and diesel pollution and will invade their privacy and block out the sun.

Young mum Erin Breneger, whose property backs onto the development, has been a spokeswoman for a group of residents and while she acknowledged the existing retirement village needed to be upgraded, she has questioned the scale of the proposal and its impact on surrounding neighbours.

Surrounding residents around Nareen Gardens are fighting a $148 million proposal to redevelop the site into a mix of three and four-storey buildings. Picture: Google

She said residents have been left even more frustrated by the lack of meaningful opportunity to comment on the proposal, which had been pushed by Uniting “using tactics that do not allow collaborative decision making”.

However Bernadette Ambrose, chairwoman of the Nareen Gardens residents committee, said those elderly people such as herself who lived in the existing retirement village were looking forward to a “wonderful upgrade and lifestyle” afforded by the redevelopment.

She said if the elderly residents most impacted by the development were “prepared to deal with it” she urged the “wider community” to be sympathetic.

The meeting heard surrounding neighbours were concerned with diesel emissions, traffic and noise during construction.

Uniting’s town planner Mel Krzus said overall the plans were “combatable” with the context of the site and the public benefits from the upgrades to the footpaths and bus shelter, additional seniors and aged care housing, and employment of 470 full-time jobs during construction far outweighed the “potential disadvantage”.

Acting panel chairman Greg Flynn said the panel would post its decision on the NSW Planning website within seven days.

Images of the scaled-down plans for the $148m redevelopment of Nareen Gardens in Bateau Bay.

It has been more than a year since aged care provider Uniting NSW ACT lodged its plans to Central Coast Council, sparking a strong campaign from locals over issues of privacy, traffic, impact on local roads and the development being out of character with the area.

In August 2021, initial plans were to quadruple the size of the Nareen Gardens ageing Bateau Bay village with a development to cater for more than 400 residents.

Plans included transforming the village into a series of three and four-storey buildings for 192 units and a 160-bed aged care facility.

Uniting's Nareen Gardens retirement village at Bateau Bay. Picture: supplied

Initial artist's impressions of the redevelopment. Picture: supplied

A month later — along with more than 100 objections — locals hired a town planner to help them object to the plan and formed the Bateau Community Collective which commissioned SKM Planning Pty Ltd to prepare a submission outlining why the Regional Planning Panel should refuse the plans.

Earlier this year, Uniting lodged scaled back plans which slashed the redevelopment by 20 per cent in response to community objections.

Bateau Bay residents are objecting to the $148m revamp of retirement village Nareen Gardens

Changes included removing “building 4” altogether and reducing the number of independent living apartments by almost 20 per cent from 232 units to 186. Uniting also scrapped the top floors from buildings 1, 2 and 5 — reducing buildings 2 and 5 to three storeys — and adding a further 28 accessible ground floor units with courtyards across the five remaining buildings.

Uniting NSW ACT head of property development Adrian Ciano told the Express the company cared about investing in the Central Coast community.

“There are gaps in quality and affordable housing for older Australians in Bateau Bay, which this community services development will help fix,” he said.

The plans were scaled back in May 2022. Picture: supplied

“Uniting is pleased to provide greater privacy through less dwellings, greater setbacks, lower heights, additional screening, solid balustrading as well as increased landscaping, aligning to the comments made by the community.”

However, Ms Breneger has continued to stress that the initial objections remained with “major sticking points” being the use of Altona Ave as a major entry and exit point along with impacts on Bias Ave as well as traffic and privacy issues.

The existing facility was built in the 1980s and is over due for a revamp.

In July, she told the Express that the community had banded together to fight the development which they say, if approved, would set a dangerous precedent across the coast.

“We had 100 objections the first time and we will have up to 80 again with the revised plans,” she said.

“The community is saying ‘it’s too big’. We’re not saying we don’t want anything to happen. “We understand development needs to happen but they need to abide by height restrictions like the rest of us instead of going up to 14.8m.

“If this can happen here, what will stop it from happening in other low density areas. This is going to impact the entire Central Coast.”

The community group has also launched a petition regarding health concerns of existing Nareen Gardens residents during construction. The petition calls on the council and State Government to address concerns regarding impacts on residents during construction and exposure to diesel emissions.

The existing retirement village on Bias Ave was built in the 1980s and while Uniting looked at other sites, it settled on Nareen Gardens because the ageing village was costing a lot to maintain and the flat site was easier to redevelop.

Uniting has maintained that the latest plans would not cause “unreasonable impacts” on surrounding residents or the local community.