A contentious $300 million proposal on State Significant Farmland (SSF) next to the Tweed Hospital has been recommended for approval by the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP).
The Cudgen Connection decision came in late yesterday, after years of deliberations, opposition and political commitments to protect the SSF. It is located at 741 Cudgen Road.
The NRPP recommended that a rezoning be approved to enable mixed use development of a private hospital, essential workers dwellings, research facility, medi-hotel and associated land uses proceed, with NRPP amendments. The NRPP’s recommendation will go to the NSW Minister of Planning and Public Spaces.
The NRPP amendments include a minimum 75 per cent of dwellings as ‘Affordable Rental Housing’ managed by a not-for-profit for at least 25 years, and a reduction in retail and housing land size.
Throughout the long process, Tweed Shire Council and residents have campaigned hard to retain the land as SFF.
Disappointing but not unexpected outcome
Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association (KRPA) president Peter Newton told The Echo, ‘A disappointing but not unexpected outcome, given how this has been playing out over sometime now. However, there is a lot more to come on this as the proponent is now required to submit an amended planning proposal, which will then be further assessed by DPHI before being presented for the Minister’s decision’.
‘We will not waste this time and will be following through with our elected representatives (whose silence remains deafening), the Premier [of NSW] and [NSW] ministers to address this shambles of a process’, he said.
If approved by the NSW Minister of Planning and Public Spaces, the 5.7 hectare proposal by Centuria Capital Group (an ASX-200 listed healthcare property manager) and Digital Infratech would see RU1 Primary Production rezoned to SP2 Infrastructure and then a development application (DA) lodged.
As the site is SSF, both Labor and the Coalition promised, when Tweed Valley Hospital was rezoned off SSF, that no further SSF at Cudgen would be developed.
MP says it’s a matter for NSW government
This included federal Labor MP, Justine Elliot. The Echo asked her for comment on the decision.
In 2018, Mrs Elliot called for the land to be retained for farming, and told parliament: ‘We need a new hospital. But we also want to protect the rich Cudgen state-significant farmlands and we want to protect the very unique quality of life at Kingscliff. It is a wonderful coastal village. We want to stop any Gold Coast style overdevelopment in Kingscliff. Labor stands with our community in wanting a new hospital in the best location, at Kings Forest, where it can be delivered and built much faster and on budget’.
The Echo asked, ‘I understand you previously supported the community and Council’s view that no more State Significant Farmland (SSF) land around the hospital should be developed. Did your position change, and if so why?’
‘Will you continue to represent the residents and Council’s rejection of this decisions and lobby the NSW government?’
She replied, ‘I am advised that the independent Northern Regional Planning Panel recommended the proposal proceed to finalisation, subject to strict conditions including that 75 per cent of the 286 dwellings are to be affordable housing. Our region desperately needs more housing, especially for essential workers. This matter is now before the NSW government for a final decision’.
Incredibly disappointing outcome, says mayor
The Echo also sought comment from Tweed Mayor, Chris Cherry.
She said, ‘This is an incredibly disappointing outcome for the Tweed after decades of promises from both sides of government that they would respect the protection of state significant farmlands’.
Brief history
Tweed councillors refused the planning proposal (6-1) in May 2024, yet it proceeded to Gateway Determination and was issued on 23 May 2025. It then went to public exhibition 3 July–18 August 2025, and had a public meeting 19 June 2026 before this week’s finalisation.
Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association (KRPA) president Peter Newton argued the panel used housing — a secondary intended use — to justify overriding the North Coast Regional Plan’s farmland protections, and that the primary uses (health/education) don’t even appear in Council’s own strategic plans.
NSW National MP Geoff Provest for Tweed and former state candidate Craig Elliot (Justine’s husband) both made public SSF-protection commitments. MP Provest’s party is not in power, however, so he does not have the influence that Mrs Elliot does, for example.
Record of Decision
According to the Record of Decision (Panel meeting 19 June 2026, determination issued 6 July 2026, p.1), the Strategic Planning Panel — Sue Francis (A/Chair), Glennis James, Pat Miller — voted 2 to 1 to recommend to the NSW Minister of Planning and Public Spaces that the LEP amendment be made, subject to four amendments: a local provision sequencing hospital/medical/education uses ahead of or alongside residential and retail; a minimum 75 per cent of dwellings as Affordable Rental Housing managed by a not-for-profit for at least 25 years; a 28,000m² GFA cap on residential; and a 3,500m² GFA cap on retail (Record of Decision, p.1).
Tweed Shire Council’s September 2025 submission records that the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) made a formal submission that September objecting to the rezoning (Attachment H, p.18), and that Council itself resolved on 2 May 2024 not to support the proposal, citing an insufficient evidence base on agricultural capability and inconsistency with State Significant Farmland protections (Attachment H, pp.24–25, 27).
Agricultural contribution limited says proponent
Planit Consulting’s response (Attachment J) discloses DPIRD’s own figures: the 5.7-hectare site forms part of a 715.42-hectare contiguous area mapped as State Significant Farmland, Land and Soil Capability Class 3 and Biophysical Strategic Agricultural Land (Attachment J, p.2, quoting DPIRD’s submission). Planit’s rebuttal — first in the December 2025 report and again in a follow-up letter dated 19 March 2026 responding to DPIRD’s 6 February 2026 submission — maintains the site’s agricultural contribution is negligible: 0.04 per cent of the region’s agricultural value (Attachment J, pp.2, 12) and one per cent of the Cudgen Plateau’s mapped SSF (Attachment J, p.21). Planit’s March letter states DPIRD’s submission “does not provide a sufficient… competing evidence base” (Attachment J, p.23). DPIRD’s objection was not withdrawn in any of the material supplied.
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