Cold-hearted Beauty
Central Coast Herald
Saturday September 28, 2002
TERRIGAL is the jewel in the crown of the Central Coast.
The once sleepy fishing village is now regarded as an upmarket tourist mecca boasting, in the Crowne Plaza resort, the Central Coast's only five-star hotel.
However, the neglected state of the town centre and Terrigal's growing popularity threatens to thwart its prosperity.
The natural beauty of Terrigal's foreshore, haven and skillion is one of the most picturesque landscapes on the NSW coast but it is a stark contrast to the tired town centre.
Terrigal regularly suffers gridlock on weekends as crowds rush to the foreshore to enjoy the growing number of upmarket restaurants and cafes.
With a series of traffic and pedestrian snarls, a lack of carparking, narrow and crowded footpaths and a declining physical appearance, Terrigal is screaming out for attention.
With the success of The Entrance Mall, and Ettalong boasting a $92million club and resort
development, Terrigal is in danger of losing its mantle as the region's top tourist spot.
Central Coast Tourism CEO Horst Endrulat is only too aware of the urgent need to upgrade the town facilities to preserve its major contribution to the region's $540million-a-year tourism industry.
Mr Endrulat says nothing has been done to improve Terrigal since the Crowne Plaza opened in 1989.
'Terrigal's physical appearance is declining and that has to be stopped immediately,' he says.
'In terms of (tourism) revenue, Terrigal is still number one but that won't continue if they don't do major redevelopment.'
Terrigal Chamber of Commerce president Ian Medlicott, whose Clan Lakeside Lodge relies on the tourism trade, is more forthright.
Mr Medlicott says it is 'criminal' that Gosford City Council has neglected Terrigal for so long.
He says the town's residents and shopkeepers are sick of being shown plan after plan without any being put into action.
'We are not going to be content to be shown pretty pictures of what it would be like anymore. We want it to happen,' Mr Medlicott says.
gosford City Council has taken a leaf out of Wyong Shire Council's book after the success of its project in creating The Entrance Mall.
It has plans for Terrigal that would see:
n Terrigal Esplanade closed and a pedestrian mall created between Campbell Crescent and Kurrawyba Avenue;
n Alfresco cafe dining areas created along the mall;
n Traffic diverted to a 489-space multi-level carpark to be built on the existing council carpark site behind Pinetree Lane;
n A paved promenade created along the beachfront from the existing carpark to the wading pool;
n A small amenities block, including toilets and a shade shelter, built at the wading pool and the existing shed structure to the south of Terrigal Surf Club removed and replaced with grass and a war memorial;
n Extensive landscaping and tree planting done throughout the town centre;
n A pedestrian crossing controlled by traffic lights installed at the intersection of Terrigal Esplanade and Campbell Crescent.
Council senior landscape architect Noelene Lyon, who is the Terrigal Foreshore and CBD Improvements Program project manager, says closing the Esplanade will create an attractive piazza-style forecourt.
'It will give Terrigal a focus and identity which is something that has been lacking in the past,' she said.
'Community events and markets will finally be able to be held there.'
However, the council, in deciding to support the closure of Terrigal Esplanade, has insisted that the new carpark be built before the mall is created.
Mr Medlicott says the new carpark is the most
'critical' part of the Terrigal upgrading.
A lack of carparking in the town centre is driving people away and creating difficulties for businesses.
However, council design engineer Peter Sheath says the carpark will not be built and open until at least Christmas 2003.
Mr Sheath says the council is negotiating a deal with a developer to build the carpark. In exchange, the council will give the developer land in Pinetree Lane on which a three-storey residential and commercial development can be built.
He says the carpark site has to be rezoned and council approval given.
WHILE the council's plan has been well recieved, there is one major obstacle to the project's completion - money.
Gosford City councillor Malcolm Brooks, chairman of the Terrigal CBD Committee, says the council has so far found only $1.5million of the $20million cost of the project.
Cr Brooks says the council has applied for a $1.4million grant from the Department of Land and Water Conservation and has requested assistance from the Federal Government, as well as investigating other ways to raise funds including a levy on businesses in Terrigal.
He, too, is frustrated by the length of time it has taken to turn the upgrading program into reality.
'We started about seven years ago on this project,' he says.
Cr Brooks hopes that the program can be
completed in five years and is confident that when
it is finished Terrigal will rival any other NSW coastal centre for tourism facilities.
Mr Medlicott believes the key to reinventing Terrigal is to provide incentives for developers to rebuild the 'run-down building stock'.
He says a strategic plan, recently formulated by the council, allows development of up to five storeys on suitably sized blocks to provide a financial incentive for developers.
'In Terrigal a lot of the buildings are a bit of a dog's breakfast,' Mr Medlicott says.
'We have nothing of any architectural merit. It is all pretty cheap and nasty construction.'
Such development would be stepped from a
maximum of two storeys on the street frontage to preserve the 'seaside village feel'.
Mr Medlicott is urging the council to borrow the funds required for the upgrade and use financial contributions from developers to repay the loan.
'Council needs to bite the bullet and borrow the money to do the CBD upgrade and have that paid back over time through a Terrigal developers' contribution plan,' Mr Medlicott says.
Mr Medlicott is also pushing for a levy to be imposed on tourist-related businesses such as accommodation providers, including his own lodge.
'Businesses such as mine have to put their hands in their pockets,' he says.
'We are the businesses that will benefit from the upgrade.
'Terrigal is geographically beautiful but its streetscape and parks and gardens are just terrible and it urgently needs to have these things done.
'The ($1.6million upgrade of the) surf club was a good start but we just want to see it finished off. It is not rocket science.
'I think it will be absolutely fantastic once it is done.'
Another tourist operator has lost faith in the council's plans for the town.
Terrigal Dive Centre's Les Graham, who has operated his business at The Haven for 34 years, was on a council committee that discussed the need for a town upgrade back in 1979.
'I have been on three council committees over the past 30 years and they have all produced a report
and nothing has been done since,' he says.
'It is very disheartening. It desperately needs doing up. It is very daggy.'
Mr Graham says Terrigal is increasingly becoming a weekend destination for Sydneysiders.
'It used to be a sleepy fishing village that came alive from Christmas until the end of January and on the first day back at school you could shoot a rifle up the main street and not hit a soul,' he recalled.
'(Now) it is a madhouse on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I would have liked to see it stay as a holiday destination where people came for one or two weeks.'
© 2002 Central Coast Herald
