Positive Outlook
It is pretty clear that the ongoing work to get a legal park established in the Illawarra region has taken its toll on Nick and that the 2 years plus that this has been going on, as Nick says, is why mountain biking is falling behind in Australia and NSW. Keep your chin up buddy, the finish line is just after this next rock Garden.
However, this should not take away that yesterday was a big positive for the Greenvalleys proposal. The Shellharbour planning staff are now in favour of the proposal and believe that in principle it is a good proposal for the region. The Dept of Planning were very positive about the park and had a number of suggestions to allow it to move forward in parallel with the finalisation of the Shellharbour LEP. The RTA, local chambers of commerce and local business are all on board.
Greenvalleys has been given a mechanism which now allows the park to progress a DA and get it ready for submission. The catch is that the planning instrument to allow the proposal to be approved will not be in place until the new LEP is gazzetted. This means that it will be at least October, more likely December before any DA can be on public exhibition (remember council elections are being held Sept, and Shellharbour is under administrations, so this will affect things as well).
The Greenvalleys team have a lot of work to do in planning the layout of the park, developing the submissions, developing infrastructure plans and fulfilling the RTA requirements for a permanent entry. This will take some time to do and so the time in waiting for approval will not be lost. Somewhere in this time there will also be a requirement to consult with riders with above average skill (ie more that the GV team) to allow the planning for high quailty A lines and features to be done.
There are a lot of GV followers around, so please keep an eye on the GV facebook and web site. These will be undergoing some changes soon to reflect the overall encompasing nature of the park rather than just freeride. The aim of the GV team is to make sure the park can provide a level of enjoyment for all riders of all skill levels of most MTB disciplines.