Northern Beaches Council is seeking input from the community to Council’s strategic planning for the future management of Pittwater Waterway with release of a Discussion Paper that will be on public exhibition for six weeks.

Northern Beaches Council’s Administrator Dick Persson AM said Pittwater has over nine times the number of moorings than at the Spit.

“There are a lot of issues that have been raised by stakeholders including environmental, social, economic and governance concerns for the area.

“I encourage community responses to the Pittwater Waterway Discussion Paper, which will in turn be used to formulate a Pittwater Waterway Strategy that will set the community’s vision and aspirations for the waterway and outline key priorities, objectives and specific actions for key stakeholders.

“The intention is to develop a strategic document guiding the management of the waterway over the next 10-15 years, making recommendations for zoning, zoning objectives and development control changes,” Mr Persson said.

At last night’s Council meeting Mr Persson also committed to incorporate parts of the Hawksbury within the strategy and to set up a high level meeting with Roads and Maritime Services.

Pittwater Council, with funding and support from Transport for NSW, commissioned planning consultants HillPDA to undertake the ‘Pittwater Marine Industry Demographic & Economic Study’ to provide an economic review of local marine industries and demand for boat storage within the Pittwater water catchment.

The key aim of the study was to help Council and the local community better understand the contributions provided by marine industries to the local economy and to assess the pressures local marine industries may face in the future. The findings of the HillPDA study are included in the Pittwater Waterway Discussion Paper.

It is expected the draft Strategy, together with a summary of submissions received during the public exhibition of the Discussion Paper, will be presented to Council by July 2017.