Davistown wetland sale: Owner says blocks “under offer”
Central Coast Council’s plan to buy 19 hectares of environmentally sensitive land at Davistown could be derailed with the sensitive land now “under offer”
Central Coast
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Central Coast Council’s plan to buy 19 hectares of environmentally sensitive land at Davistown could be completely derailed — and the land owners says council only has itself to blame.
Selling agent for the property Larry Altavilla said the six parcels of land in Lillipilli St, Pine Ave, Kincumber Cres, and Malinya Rd were now “under offer” and negotiations were underway with the prospective buyers.
“We have had absolutely no communication whatsoever with Central Coast Council and we are in negotiations with other parties,” Mr Altavilla said.
“I’ve left at least 20 messages at the council over six months and they have completely ignored all of them,” he said.
Central Coast Council recently decided to start negotiations to buy the land for a “fair price” with a view to introducing “binding protections” in the future.
Mr Altavilla said, however, the owners had not been approached.
“We’ve come to no agreement with Central Coast Council and we are not going to,” he said.
Public argy bargy over the sale of the blocks began in October 2017 when the selling agents launched a schmick marketing campaign to sell the land as “Tidal Shoals” — an opportunity for an astute investor — with an optimistic auction price guide of $124 million.
A public protest meeting followed quickly with the community urging council to buy the land.
The property was then passed in at auction with a single “lowball” bid of $7 million.
CoreLogic property data for the land sets the 2017 value of the land at about $7 million.
The land is subject to complicated low density residential and conservation zonings which are thought to make significant scale development unlikely.
Some of the land is zoned DM — an interim measure applying to rural sites earmarked by Council for its Coastal Open Space System.
Essentially the DM means that whatever rules applied to the land prior to the latest Local Environment Plan (LEP) will still apply — until a new environmental zone is established.
Agents point to the development precedent set in 1992 when Alloura Waters Retirement Village built 200 apartments and villas along the same coastal stretch.
Mr Altavilla accused council of using “delaying tactics” to drive down the price while it waited to resolve the zoning issues on the land.
“It’s incredibly frustrating — we won’t accept an unrealistic offer,” Mr Altavilla said.
“They look at Tony [Altavilla] like some greedy-arsed developer but he’s just trying to get a fair price for land he owns,” he said.
“They can’t be too worried about what happens to the land because they are talking to everyone but us.”
A spokeswoman for Central Coast Council said staff were progressing the investigation into the purchase of the land known as Davistown wetlands in accordance with the recent council resolution.