Mayor Paul Hogan has written to the minister for environment and heritage, Rob Stokes stating that "without some feedback on this matter the CZMP cannot be completed, reviewed by council and adopted by the end of the year as he requested."

The letter from Cr Hogan comes as council seeks to progress the development of its CZMP following the minister's decision in October to implement a consistent state-wide coastal management framework to support the State government position of retreat versus protection measures.

The minister's decision required council to rewrite its CZMP and senior staff from the department of planning and office of environment and heritage were tasked with assisting council to re-write the CZMP and design "the mechanisms by which retreat could be implemented".

That process began in October with a meeting and at that time council's executive leader corporate support, Laura Black said that during the meeting they discussed "some very complex issues" and "mapped all the options that are either available, or could be made available with legislative change."

"Various scenarios for property at different levels of threat, and property owners in different stages of life and with different needs and different ownership styles, were discussed," Ms Black said.

"We also began to canvass options that involve stakeholders who were not in the room, including other government departments and some private sector industries.

"The options are varied, but included things like relief and waiver of State and local government regulatory fees and charges, land release for relocation and other personal and monetary incentives.

"We also canvassed the levy of a Special Rate Variation given the community's high level of demand to maintain beach amenity.

"These options were mapped for the State broadly, not just Old Bar, as the minister's intention is to implement a consistent state-wide coastal management framework.

"The next step is to investigate the ease and cost of implementing the options, and to draw them into packages that could be offered as the different hazard triggers of the coastal zone are met.

"When looking at the options, we didn't allow cost or the fact that the relevant stakeholder might not have been in the room to limit the scope of options. It may be that some options are discounted when fully investigated.

"As the majority of options that require legislative change and engagement of other stakeholders rely on the minister's involvement, OEH staff took responsibility for investigating these further."

Two months on, Ms Black said "no response has been received in relation to the feasibility of the various components of this option, many of which rely on legislative change."

However, Ms Black said that in recent discussions, the minister did commit to visiting the area early in the new year and council is endeavouring to confirm that date.