Seven months after a monster east coast low walloped beaches at towns like Wamberal near Gosford and Collaroy on Sydney's northern beaches, the Baird government is putting the final touches to new rules to manage risks for existing properties and limiting future exposure.

"We've known about these issues for a generation but precious little's been done," Mr Stokes told Fairfax Media.

The package of reforms – which include a new state environmental planning policy (SEPP) replacing four existing ones, a new manual to guide councils and a new body of experts to audit those plans – aims to force local government to take responsibility for threats facing coasts and estuaries.

"You've got to know where the hazards are to resolve them," he said. "If you don't identify a hazard, it doesn't mean it's not there."

The ambitious policy, though, has galvanised opposition from groups such as the NSW Coastal Alliance. They say anxieties have been heightened by the varied response in the aftermath of June's tempest, and fear local councils could enforce a "retreat option" that could force landowners to give up properties without adequate compensation.

Pat Aiken, regional coordinator for the Coastal Alliance in Wamberal, said the government's plan to extend the SEPP for consultation until January 20 reveals a "frivolous" approach to public input. The group wants an extension until mid-March.

Mr Aiken, who on Friday was offered another meeting with Mr Stokes on January 10, said his group had many concerns about the new policy.

"We're still waiting for the hazard mapping" to go with the new coastal management act and SEPP, Mr Aiken said. "There's still this huge question of how's this going to impact properties."

There also appears to be no provision for compensation in any of the documents released so far, he said.

Karen Coleman, a litigation lawyer with King & Wood Mallesons who has represented coastal landowners in several disputes, will lead a case early next year in the Land and Environment Court involving Wamberal residents trying to get approval for a new sea wall to protect properties.

Without a coastal zone management plan, the Central Coast Council had been unable to approve a new sea wall. The Coastal Panel of experts rejected it.

By contrast, within 10 days of the June storm, the Northern Beaches Council ordered local residents to build temporary protective works, and is now working with residents to get a more permanent embankment (known as revetment) in place.

Ms Coleman said: "The Central Coast Council refused to do the same even though Wamberal residents and beachgoers face an identical or more dangerous situation."

"You've got a patchwork of responses up and down the coast, depending on which party is dominating the council," Ms Coleman said, adding: "why does it have to be a battleground?"

Warren Hughes, a Wamberal resident not involved in the court case, faces a fight after spending $55,000 to erect a wall of 300 one-tonne sand bags. The council said he used the wrong bag material and has ordered him to remove it.

"I paid for it, on my land, to protect my property," Mr Hughes said. The storm was "like someone running a bulldozer through your house and you're supposed to just watch it".

Mr Stokes said it was "just not true" the government would be expropriating land without compensation. Communities would be permitted to take action to protect their land but it had to take into account effects on neighbours and public assets such as the beach.

Residents will still be able to protect their land and build protection works in the same way they can for other natural hazards like flooding or bushfires, Mr Stokes said.

A search for mapping of hazards had found many councils were not prepared despite decades discussing the threat from existing storms and those that climate change will bring.

"The whole process exposed why we needed to do it," Mr Stokes said.

Follow Peter Hannam on Twitter and Facebook.