BUILDING UPDATE

Hey church!

Here’s some info I hope you find helpful re: our building plans and some of the recent local media attention.

CoastEC has been consulting with Council’s specialist planning and ecological staff since 2019 in relation to our proposed Place of Worship and Community Facilities. We’ve had several pre-DA meetings and each time we’ve taken Council’s advice and amended our plans.

Last year we lodged our DA. In response to community feedback received during the exhibition stage, and again in consultation with Council, we amended the design again. This new design conforms to all zoning requirements and is consistent with the objectives of the current LEP and DCP.

What were the changes?

1. Driveway 

Vehicular access has now been relocated to Hadley St (removing vehicle access from Elluisa Cl) to minimise traffic impacts on the residents in the cul-de-sac. This will also give visitors a more obvious point of entry to our carpark.

2. Parking

The size of the carpark has also been reduced to minimise ecological impacts on the C2 zoned land by 50%. To compensate for that, we’ve added some more parking on the R3 portion of the site, and along the Hadley St frontage. There is also plenty of on-street parking along the school side of Hadley St where we currently park on Sundays for church services at the School.

It’s important to note that the number of carparks on site still exceeds Council's minimum requirements. These onsite carparks will also provide additional off-street and overflow parking mid-week for the school community who currently park on our land informally; and for the Park Run community on Saturdays (which will free up street parking for residents on Head St).

“What about the destruction of protected vegetation?”

You may have seen some concerns about this in local media.

Someone wrote in the Forster Fortnightly “The protected vegetation area [off Elluisa Close] will be fully cleared to make way for a 60 vehicle car park for the proposed church at Hadley Street.” This is a gross exaggeration and a lie.

The actual portion of C2 zoned land to be cleared for the carpark (which is a permissible development on that land) is just 1,200 square metres (see in red below).

This is only 7% of the 16,000 square metres, leaving 93% totally undeveloped

To put this into perspective, the Elluisa Close development recently cleared more than 8,000 square metres of bushland to accommodate 13 residential blocks and the road.

I personally find it hard to believe that the residents who live there and who are objecting, actually care about the trees and fauna connectivity. Did they protest their own development? Or did they help fund it by purchasing the land? Did they retain any trees on their own lots? Or did they fully clear them to build their houses? Have they replanted any large native trees on their own property to help maintain fauna connectivity or to provide additional habitat? Not as far as I can see. So to campaign against such a small loss of trees for our development reeks of hypocrisy to me.

The bulk of our development (6,400 square metres) is on land zoned R3 (medium density residential). This is the large, semi-cleared corner block.

One of the conditions of the original subdivision (DA-493/2017/C) that we inherited when we bought it was to establish this Lot as an IPA (Inner Protection Zone) to help protect the nearby houses on Lincoln St from bushfire. The partial clearing on that block was done in consultation with, and the approval of, Council’s Senior Ecologists. Since then, we have tried to keep it mowed to keep the fuel load down.

Any environmental impacts will be offset in accordance with the Biodiversity Offset Scheme which is supported by the updated ecology report by JBEnviro and BDAR calculations.

“It doesn’t belong in a quiet residential area!”

Some residents are saying the church is out of place for “a quiet residential area” and have  concerns about the proposed operating hours (10pm on week nights, and 11pm on weekends).

The reality is that the vast majority of churches in Forster-Tuncurry are located in or beside residential areas.

Our development is not located in a purely residential area. It sits amongst many other community facilities (like the School, Aquatic Centre, Guides Hall, Preschool, Bridge Club and some shops). To the west, it’s bordered by the largest primary school in the district. To the north, it faces out to open space and the ocean. The southern boundary is close to a handful of residences (7 houses on Hadley St) and the eastern boundary is bushland.

The proposed hours of operation for the building are quite broad to ensure flexibility for occasional events, and to meet a variety of scheduling needs for both the church and the local community.

Noise mitigation measures (in line with Council regulations) including acoustic fencing and ceiling insulation have been incorporated into the design to ensure minimal noise impact to neighbours. (It's also good to note that we have not had one noise complaint against us for the 17 years we’ve been around!).

Light spill will be mitigated through specialist lighting design to ensure no adverse effects on neighbouring properties or native fauna. The final design will be submitted to Council for endorsement prior to construction.

“It’s too big!”

In the Advocate article, some residents are objecting to "the sheer size of the development" and claim it's "a commercial enterprise that is going to be hired out".

The size of our development is actually way smaller than is permissible on the land.

The footprint of the building is well below the floor space ratio of the planning controls.

The buildings (less than 8 metres high) are way below the height limits for the R3 zone (which allows for 12 metres plus a conditional further 10%, so up to 13.2m).

If the proposal was not permitted and the land was sold to a developer (and we have been approached by a few developers), they would seek to build a large 3-storey unit complex. This would dominate the streetscape, there would be no additional off-street parking available for the school community, and there would be no wider benefit to the community.

“There is no benefit to the local community!”

The facilities have been designed with the wider community in mind.

The Auditorium will be a great addition to community infrastructure. It will provide another space for weddings, funerals, presentations, award ceremonies, end of year performances and a new venue for local artists to perform or showcase their work.

The Café will provide an exciting new business and employment opportunity in an area where no cafe already exists. It will create a new easily accessible community connection point for locals and holiday makers. The playground will make it one of the few places for young families to sit and enjoy a coffee while their kids play in a safely fenced and visible area. The school community (staff, parents & carers) can socialise before and after dropping off or picking up their children; walkers on the Pebbly Beach walking track can use it as a base or pit-stop; the Park Run community can use it as a place to park, or to wait for participants to finish, or a place to continue socialising afterwards. The cafe will also help connect the adjoining reserve to the town centre, making the foreshore and coastal walk from Forster Main Beach to the lookout at Bennetts Head a much more attractive part of the Barrington Coast. We’re open to expressions of interest from a local business who might be keen to operate the Café so let us know if anyone comes to mind!

The Community Facilities will also improve our community’s ability to connect with each other. The multi-purpose rooms of varying sizes will house weekly youth groups & kids’ clubs and holiday programs designed to engage children and youth. These facilities will provide more affordable and appropriately sized meeting rooms for various community groups to gather (eg 12 step recovery groups, play groups, mothers groups, book clubs) and small businesses to flourish (eg martial arts and self defence classes; dance schools and gymnastics classes). Being located directly across the road from Forster Public School and a pedestrian crossing, the facility could be safely accessed by children who will attend before and after school groups, clubs and programs without additional organised/supervised travel. If you know any community groups who might be interested in using one of our multi-purpose spaces, just ask them to get in touch.

The local economy will also benefit. Construction of the facilities will provide local businesses, professionals and tradies with work. The facilities will also provide ongoing employment opportunities for those involved in Christian ministry and hospitality (Café). Small local businesses will also benefit by having access to additional spaces to rent.

These new facilities can also be used for emergency/recovery purposes such as an evacuation or operations centre; an information point; or crisis accommodation during large scale events like bushfires and pandemics.

Benefit to the church community

Since CoastEC was established in 2009, the Lord has steadily grown us in number. We now have about 450 people attending one of our weekly public programs (church services, bible study groups, youth group or kids club). We also have about 1300 holiday makers attend Sunday Services each year.

It continues to be challenging to find suitable and available spaces to rent. We currently rent Office space in Tuncurry Business Centre; the Forster Public School Hall for church services on Sundays and youth group on Fridays; the Girl Guides Hall for Kids Club on Fridays; and other venues like Club Forster, The Civic Centre and Forster Tuncurry Golf Club for occasional events and courses. It can also be challenging for people to find us!

Having our own facilities will mean we can run our ministries at the times that are most suitable for us and in spaces that are purpose built for the style of ministries we want to run. We can gather to sing the praises of our good God; we can to listen to His Word; we can enjoy fellowship together; we can serve one another; and we can welcome more people from our community who are exploring the faith to join us, so they can meet Jesus too.

So let’s pray for Council to approve our DA, and look forward with faith to the day we can enjoy our own space.

Chris