The draft Masterplan can be viewed on the Council’s website, and also at the Lawson Library and Council's Springwood and Katoomba administration centres.

You can lodge a submission until Thursday 18 April 2019. To do so, go to the council’s ‘have your say’ or email your submission to: council@bmcc.nsw.gov.au.

Lawson Crown Lands Masterplan

The draft Masterplan covers the old Lawson Golf Course, the Lawson Cemetery, Lawson Dog Off Leash area, Lawson BMX track and the nearby oval. The old Lawson Golf Course is currently used for a range of low impact recreation, including bushwalking, dog walking and picnicking, as well as sporting purposes. The local Bushcare group has invested years of volunteer work revegetating the creekline.

The Masterplan proposes a two stage re-development of the Crown Lands at Lawson.

Stage One centres on enhancing the existing passive recreation and includes:

• Increasing the riparian buffer to Lawson Creek;
• Improved connection to existing bush walking trails;
• Maintaining existing informal grassed areas for passive recreation;
• Retaining the BMX track and Lawson Oval in their current location;
• New park amenities (picnic facilities, bubblers and seating);
• A new shared loop path around the whole site;
• A nature play area incorporating the enhanced detention pond;
• Relocating and fencing the dog off leash area; and
• Retaining existing vegetation around the southern perimeter.

Stage Two represents an intensification of use and includes:

• Relocating Lawson Oval to a flexible mid-site sports precinct with an amenities building and parking;
• Native nursery and community use in the old clubhouse and/or a small cafe;
• Junior sports or children’s bike play area near the retained BMX track;
• Increased parking to junior sports and BMX precincts; and
• Secondary detention pond to retain and recycle sports facilities run-off.

Here's the Society's submission that was made during the previous public exhibition process.

The Society does not support intensification of the recreational and sporting uses at the site and would like to see minimal re-development, with the site being protected as an open space recreation area and bushland reserve. This includes maintenance of the existing uses at their current locations, including the BMX track, oval, cemetery, dog off leash area (fenced) and bushwalking tracks but no new sporting infrastructure or precincts, including no new ovals, car parking, and associated amenities blocks.

The Society supports the following proposals:

• Additional small-scale recreational opportunities consistent with the natural values of the site such as a children’s nature playground, children’s bike track, and other passive recreational opportunities (eg picnic tables and interpretative signage).
• Enhancement of the natural values of the site including widening of the bushland areas along the creekline and improved stormwater management.
• Upgrades and expansion of the existing walking track network.
• Fencing the dog off leash area.
• Identification of the old clubhouse space for a community native nursery. This would provide an ideal permanent home in the mid mountains for the Society’s community native plant nursery. The Society’s nursery is a community not for profit nursery run by volunteers, which provides affordable locally grown and sourced native plants to the general public. The Society has been attempting to find a location to re-open its nursery in the mid mountains for a number of years.
• The ‘Blue Mountains Arboretum and Botanical Walk and Ride Trail’ proposed by the South Lawson Park Bushcare Group. This is a further development on the idea of a ‘shared loop path’ around the old fairways and would involve signposted plantings of local provenance indigenous flora interspersed amongst the more regular plantings along the proposed walk/trail. The plantings would be selected to create massed displays/groupings of the more spectacular flowering shrubs and smaller trees of the mid-mountains, e.g. Mint bush, Mountain Devil, Wattles and Tea-trees, that would attract locals and visitors.

Make a submission supporting the Society’s position as outlined above, including supporting the identification of the old clubhouse space as a location for the Society’s community native nursery.

You can lodge a submission until Thursday 18 April 2019. To do so, go to the council’s ‘have your say’ or email your submission to: council@bmcc.nsw.gov.au.