Gosford waterfront: Central Coast Council floats new $687m plan to revitalise CBD foreshore
A ferry terminal, conference centre, shop top housing and a bustling marina – welcome to yet another plan to revitalise Gosford’s waterfront. Here’s everything you need to know.
Central Coast
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Welcome to the $687 million Gosford waterfront 4.0 — the latest incarnation in decades old plans to breathe new life into the ailing CBD foreshore.
Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart is expected to endorse recommendations to a September 27 meeting to forge ahead with new plans to transform Gosford’s waterfront.
The recommendations would see the adoption of a concept plan, seeking community feedback, before a masterplan and business case are developed for the waterfront, which would then be shopped around to the state government and private developers for investment.
“The time is right to revitalise Gosford as an iconic waterfront city. To do so, requires reimagining Gosford’s waterfront as a place that welcomes visitors to the region, delivers greater connectivity, attracts culturally significant events, and enhances liveability,” a council planner said.
Many of the Central Coast’s long-suffering residents could be forgiven for thinking they have heard that before.
After all, the time was apparently right in 2007 when the former Gosford City Council launched its first comprehensive Waterfront Strategy and again in 2010 when council answered the much lauded “Gosford Challenge”.
But when those plans failed to gain any traction, it was hoped the time was right when Lend Lease stepped in and offered to do what successive elected councils couldn’t in 2011 with The Landing.
The latest plans come after the previous Administrator Dick Persson was prodded into action last year when Australian Conservation Foundation Central Coast branch spokesman Mark Ellis address a meeting and outlined the history of the public land surrounding the waterfront and the litany of proposals that never saw the light of day.
Mr Persson resolved in April 2021 to get council staff to report back on opportunities to revitalise the waterfront, review previous plans and why these were rejected.
He resolved to develop three options to revitalise the waterfront and use the preferred option to change existing planning controls that inhibit the redevelopment of the foreshore and issue an expression of interest (EOI) to explore potential development sites.
At the time council estimated it would cost $140,000 to get the planning up to the point of issuing an EOI.
The report to the September 27 council meeting highlights “Option 1” as the preferred option which would provide residential development along with public open space, infrastructure and overall improvement to the area.
The report states Option 2 had a focus on job creation and tourism, with “a small number of residential properties” while Option 3 had no residential component.
However the report does not outline what Options 2 or 3 actually includes.
Instead Option 1 is touted as having the greater benefit to cost ratio, generate more jobs and have higher net profit of $101.7 million in total.
“When both public and private investment are considered, Option 1 is the most superior option and has the greatest chance of being delivered by both government and private investors,” the report states.
The report states the proposal was “beyond that which could be successfully delivered by council” and hopes to develop a business case, which would include detailed design of about 25-30 per cent of the proposal, at a cost of $8.5 million.
Publicly available details of Option 1 are limited to a “concept plan” which states the waterfront and Central Coast Stadium redevelopment would cost an estimated $687 million and generate 4890 jobs during construction and 769 ongoing jobs.
The concept plan includes a ferry terminal, floating residential, hotel and commercial wharves jutting out into Brisbane Water and a sea wall surrounding a marina.
The concept also includes a large public building opposite the new Gosford Waterfront Park, an amphitheatre, a bike/walking path parallel to the train line all the way to Woy Woy, pedestrian underpass/bridges and an outdoor water playground and possible redevelopment of Gosford Olympic Pool.
Gosford Bowling Club meanwhile would be bulldozed for a hotel along with a conference centre and multistorey parking station on the western side of the stadium.
TIMELINE OF INACTION
It is not the first plan to revitalise Gosford waterfront with three significant proposals and a multitude of unsolicited ideas unsuccessfully floated in the past 30 years.
FAST FERRIES 1980-90s
Between 1986 and 1998 a number of studies and expressions of interest were held to investigate the feasibility of a marina and tourism drawcard at Gosford waterfront including a fast ferry terminal to Circular Quay.
A lease was granted in 2003 for a ferry/wharf operator but it was subsequently cancelled in 2010 after a long period of inaction.
GOSFORD WATERFRONT STRATEGY 2007
The Gosford Waterfront Strategy was launched in 2007 and promised the staged development of “nodes” including a marina, galleries, restaurants and a new pool along a pedestrian or cycleway route, reclaimed land adjacent to the train line and a boardwalk next to Dane Drive.
GOSFORD CHALLENGE 2010
This plan was scuttled with the launch of the Our City, Our Destiny 2010 Masterplan, which incorporated the waterfront among five precincts across Gosford to be redeveloped.
Also known as The Gosford Challenge, this plan focused on connecting the waterfront to the CBD and incorporate retail, entertainment, offices and residential apartments.
Prepared by the NSW Architect and released among much fanfare, very little of this plan was ever implemented and despite remaining the “current” masterplan it has largely been mothballed.
THE LANDING 2011
The Gosford Challenge prompted the government to declare the waterfront a State Significant Site which saw the then Central Coast Regional Development Corporation partner with Lend Lease to develop The Landing at Gosford in 2011.
This plan linked the waterfront to a 1000-seat performing arts centre, hotel, residential finger wharves, three major office buildings as well as boutique shops, cafes and restaurants.
It was supposed to be a 10-year plan to begin in 2014 and generate 4000 new jobs and 700 dwellings.
However a community backlash saw the footprint of the proposal dramatically scaled back and Lend Lease subsequently withdrew its support.
MARINERS 2019
More recently the Mariners presented an unsolicited proposal in December 2019 to redevelop the stadium, the adjacent bowling club and activate the waterfront.
The Mariners’ $4 million proposal for a 30-year lease included cafes, retail, restaurants and a catering school. But it too, sailed over the cross bar and sunk somewhere in Brisbane Water.
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