iPlan - a NSW Government initiative coordinated by
Department of Planning

The recommended action plan for initiating the development of the Tweed Heads Town centre reflects the following fundamental factors:

• The Tweed Heads Town Centre and the town centre core will always be characterised by multiple property owners, plus a wide variety of other stakeholders who live and work in the area, and who visit it for a variety of reasons. Therefore, micro-management of the development and operation of the town centre is not practical.
• Town centres, like other urban areas are always changing. Future developments within them must be able to respond to changes in market conditions and consumer demand. Planning instruments must be sufficiently flexible to reflect these changes.
• Tweed Heads is on the verge of massive changes in its demography and urban character, due to both underlying population trends and the town centre's proposed new functions. Existing planning instruments will need to recognise and facilitate these dramatic expected future changes.
• Development and infrastructure within the town centre should be funded as much as possible by the private sector.
• The Gold Coast-Tweed market is forecast to continue to grow at a substantial rate, and there is an identified latent demand for residential and other facilities in the town centre area. Therefore, the growth of the town centre can be achieved through capitalising on existing regional growth opportunities and natural resources.
• The recommended strategy includes major planned changes to the existing character and urban design of portions of the town centre. A critical part of this is establishing and implementing a master plan, coordination of business development, evaluating results and updating objectives as required. A dedicated management and co-ordination body is required to fulfil these requirements and ensure continuity.

These factors dictate that the action plan should have the following characteristics:

• It should provide a vision and clear planning direction, thereby reducing uncertainty and increasing the potential for private sector investment. The vision statement should take into consideration the new Tweed Shire Strategic Plan.
• It should provide a planning framework and incentives for facilitating the kinds of development that are critical to creating successful town centres. In the town centre core - which is proposed to be the focus of the most intense redevelopment - this includes provision of medium and high density residential units fronting Bay and Stuart Streets, ground level street-front retailing, commercial uses above ground or on the fringe of the town centre core, and educational, entertainment and cultural facilities that create a sense of place and community ownership.
• It should not be overly prescriptive, because planning instruments cannot always reflect market demand or changes in demand.
• Its implementation should be the responsibility of a dedicated task force focusing on planning, implementation, co-ordination, identification of opportunities, securing funding for public sector projects, and evaluating progress. Continuity of management within the initial stages of the program is critical.

Accordingly, the recommended action plan includes the following:

• Establishment of a dedicated task force to implement the strategy.
• A focus on planning instruments and controls that will facilitate private sector investment in the town centre, and particularly in the town centre core.
• Targeting public sector investment in infrastructure that facilitates development, and where required to attract private sector investment in line with the objectives of the economic strategy and master plan.
• Limiting public sector investment where demand is expected to trigger private sector investment.