When the Tweed Vally Hospital (TVH) site was rezoned from State Significant Farmland (SSF) to allow the site to be developed for the new hospital the NSW government said they would not allow any further development on the SSF on the Cudgen Plateau.
The neighbouring property was bought by developer Allan Larkin in 2019. He began lobbying the state government to include the site in the new hospital development in early 2020. The government declined to include it in the TVH site development.
In February 2022 Centuria Capital Group and Digital Infratech then proposed Cudgen Connection at the site and have continued to push for the site to be rezoned and developed including saying the site was incorrectly zoned. This is against clear community opposition and repeated confirmation from the local MP Geoff Provest (Nationals) that the site is not open for development. This position was supported by both the then NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts and Minister for Agriculture Dugald Saunders in 2022.
At the time Mr Larkin started his campaign in 2020 to develop the SSF ‘Mr Provest repeated his “iron clad guarantee” that no further SSF would be used for development purposes,’ President of the Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association Inc (KRPA), Peter Newton, told The Echo.
Last weekend saw the Cudgen Connection group seeking Tweed residents’ feedback on their $300 million proposal that would see the SSF developed. Originally the proposal, on land that cannot be used for this development unless rezoned by the state government, was for a ‘$250m health and education development’ which is now a ‘$300m health, education and essential worker housing precinct’.
Community values agricultural land
‘Over the years, the Kingscliff/Cudgen community has fought off a number of proposed developments on this farmland,’ explained Mr Newton.
‘Our community wants to reach a point where we are not having to be continually vigilant or concerned that we are facing yet another battle to save and protect an area that is supposedly already protected from development by legislation.
‘The fact remains that this proposal is still on legislatively protected farmland that can only be used for agriculturally-related purposes, something the developer knew from the moment he bought it. That is the major flaw in the proposal and one that is completely unacceptable to not only our community but a raft of politicians including our state and federal members and Tweed Shire councillors.
‘The protection of this land is enshrined in the North Coast Regional Plan 2041 and in the Shire’s planning frameworks, which have been developed with significant community consultation.
‘We still seek an unequivocal guarantee that the land remain protected and the community can stop looking over its shoulder for the next proposal from a land-banking developer,’ said Mr Newton.
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