COMMUNITY concerns about Salamander Bay’s wetlands continue to rise with the development application for the Salamander Bay Town Centre Place Plan set to be lodged within weeks.
The Plan seeks an expansion of the town centre and further development in 155 Salamander Way, a five-hectare area that is being investigated for retail, local services and affordable housing.
Council is also seeking an expression of interest to develop 10 Central Avenue into a medical precinct to reduce the pressure on Tomaree Hospital.
According to the Mambo-Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group, such a proposal is “fundamentally flawed” as the wetlands buffer zone, which is home to koalas, will be greatly reduced.
More than 150 community members attended a Community Forum hosted by the Conservation Group at Tomaree Library on 30 May.
The event featured speakers including wetlands scientist Tom Headley, local architect Murray Wood and NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson, who spoke against Council’s plan.
An online petition calling for the plan to be stopped has received more than a thousand signatures.
A Port Stephens council spokesperson responded to the community concerns thus:
“The current proposal for 155 Salamander Way has significantly reduced the potential development footprint, does not include any high environmental value land, and will not remove endangered ecological communities or preferred koala habitat. Council is aware that some of the current proposals are in the last remaining buffer zone and will continue to explore these sensitivities as the proposals progress.”
Council also stated that it aimed to “deliver quality community health outcomes on a smaller footprint than earlier plans” on 10 Central Avenue, and that as development applications were lodged, they would keep valuing community feedback as they had done so far.
The Mambo-Wanda Wetlands Conservation Group has also contested Port Stephens Mayor Leah Anderson’s reassurance that no koala feed trees would be removed, claiming that many of the trees planned to be cut down in the buffer zone appeared on Council’s own Koala Plan of Management and were crucial to their wellbeing.
By Nico LOMBARDO
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