The proposed Cudgen Connection development next to the Tweed Valley Hospital at 741 Cudgen, Road, Cudgen is before Tweed Shire Council (TSC) this afternoon.
The site is zoned State Significant Farmland (SSF) and Labor and the Liberal-National Party at all levels of government promised the community, when the Tweed Valley Hospital was approved on SSF, that they would not approve any further development on SSF zoned land at Cudgen.
Tweed councillors refused the initial planning proposal in May 2024 (6-1 with Cr Warren Polglase against). However, despite strong opposition, the proposal was listed for a Gateway Determination in September 2024. A Gateway Determination was issued by the Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) on 23 May 2025.
‘The Planning Proposal seeks to rezone the site from RU1 Primary Production to SP2 Infrastructure to enable a mix of health, education, tourism, residential accommodation and open space uses,’ says the staff report.
No more health space needed
The staff report states that ‘the proposal is generally acknowledged to have strategic planning merit in terms of providing a range of land use opportunities to further support a health and education precinct within the context of the Tweed Valley Hospital and Kingscliff TAFE.’
However, as the President of the Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association Inc (KRPA) points out, ‘The community has been told over many years now that any future expansion of the health and education precinct at Cudgen is adequately catered for in the combined footprint of the Tweed Valley Hospital and Kingscliff TAFE sites. This surely negates the need for the rezoning of this piece of State Significant Farmland for the primary intended purposes.’
The Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) will determine the development application (DA), which was publicly exhibited between 3 July and 18 August 2025.
The NRPP’s Record of Decision, above and beyond the protection of SSF, noted that the primary intended uses of the Cudgen Connection hospital/medical/education were the basis of the zoning changes to ‘Special Purpose’. However, they argued strategic and site specific merit based on the provision of housing, a secondary intended use. This led to relevant sections of the North Coast Regional Plan (NCRP) 2041 around important farmland to be ignored.
‘It seemed contradictory that the NRPP relied on the provision of housing, a secondary intended use in this proposal, to support evidence of strategic and site-specific merit,’ said Mr Newton.
‘By the Panel’s own words, the health and education facilities are the basis of the rezoning to Special Purposes. The flow on affect in our eyes was that the required alignment with the NCRP 2041 related to the provision of housing and not the protection of important SSF. We hope that Councillor’s pick up on this inconsistency. This most certainly does not align with any of our state and local planning strategies.’
It is clear that none of the primary intended uses for the Cudgen Conneciton site appear in any of Tweed Shire Council’s strategic plans and any growth needed for the health precinct and housing are already catered for in current approvals and strategic land releases.
Futher, TSC’s planning proposal aimed at aligning the Kingscliff Locality Plan with the Tweed LEP 2014 was refused by NSW Planning in 2024 partly on the basis that the Growth Management and Housing Strategy (GMHS) was being prepared and TSC should wait for that process to be finalised and the strategy approved. The Cudgen Connection proposal was removed from the GMHS.
38m height
The proposed DA is seeking an increase from the current 10m height limit to proposed heights of up to 38m, which is from 12-13 storeys which will radically change the character of the Cudgen and Kingscliff towns.
‘Approval will result in the loss of our community’s long-fought-for building height limits due to a DA’s proposed change to the Tweed Shire’s Local Environment Plan (LEP), which would allow building heights to 38 metres on this site! There is also no strategic merit in this proposal and it does not sit within of the Shire’s current and future strategic planning,’ explained Mr Newton.
Promises made
National Party MP Geoff Provest has said he remains committed to preserving the SSF as promised when the Tweed Valley Hospital site was rezoned.
In February 2022, now leader of the NSW National Party, Dugald Saunders, committed to protecting the SSF from further encroachment.
At the time so did Federal MP for Richmond, Justine Elliot, and her husband, who was running for the state seat of Tweed, Craig Elliot.
In 2023 Mr Elliot told The Echo that, ‘Labor is on the record as being committed to protecting State Significant Farmland. I have never supported having this prime agricultural land rezoned and sold off to developers.’
However, Mrs Elliot has refused to reconfirm her commitment to the preservation of SSF since. Her office told The Echo to contact Labor’s NSW MLC Emily Suvaal for comment on the issue, however, no response was received to the enquiry.
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