Davistown Wetlands sale: Councillors refuse to give up on negotiations
The difference between council’s offer to purchase Davistown Wetlands and the owner’s expectations are “tenfold”, says a council officer.
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Negotiations between Central Coast Council and the owner of Davistown Wetlands have reached a stalemate.
At this week’s council meeting, staff recommended it cease all negotiations on the 19.2ha of environmentally sensitive land.
Instead, councillors voted to defer the matter for at least 12 weeks with the view for council to continue negotiations and look at options – one of which includes compulsory acquisition.
Councillor Troy Marquart led the charge for negotiations to continue.
“We need to go (down) every single avenue, the people of Davistown have been waiting a long time,” he said.
“We should reopen negotiations with the owner and vendor.”
Council’s executive manager of innovation and future Ricardo Martello said the negotiations had been challenging.
“Challenges in negotiations are in relation to reaching a mutually agreeable amount,” he said.
“We can’t disclose negotiations values. It’s more than tenfold difference.”
The community has been lobbying the council to buy and preserve the wetlands for years.
The saga of the sale of the blocks began in October 2017 when the selling agents launched a 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 with the community urging council to buy the land. The property was passed in at auction with just one bid of $7 million.
Cr Rebecca Gale said the council needs to get the matter over the line.
“A lot of time has been spent on this issue and acquisition of it,” she said.
“From what I’ve read the counter offer from the landowners seems completely unreasonable. I was gobsmacked when viewing the counter offer with the number of 0’s.”
Councillors voted to continue to negotiate with the owners and investigate other avenues such as compulsory acquisition.
Selling agent Larry Altivilla described council’s offer as “next to nothing” and not worth consideration.
“But sometimes you have to pay what something is worth,” he said. “We are not talking about paying over and above, we are just looking for something that is fair.”
He said council need to sit down with the owner and flesh out a plan.