You can’t stop progress, claimed Bill Heslop running for local council in the fictional town of Porpoise Spit. Bill was ultimately unsuccessful, but at least you knew where he stood.
Now, I must point out at this stage I am against the NSW governments proposed re zoning.
However, ask anyone who lives in Gordon and Pymble, residents of the thousands of apartments already built there. Most are built around railway stations. The population of Ku-ring-gai surged by 20%. However, despite large parcels of land zoned R4 high density in Roseville and Lindfield remaining virtually untouched.
Despite this, water pressure is still strong, there is no sewage flowing in the streets, schools have coped, indeed the sun still comes up every single day. What’s difficult to manage is our crumbling town centres, the traffic and lack of ensuing infrastructure, which quite frankly has never been properly dealt with by any political party.
Additionally, the night of the 13th of December 2022, all ten current Ku-ring-gai councillors voted unanimously to support the oddly named Urban Forest Strategy or UFS.
The Urban Forest Strategy intends to “promote liveability and mobility providing new housing within and around the local centres, within a 10 – minute walk to frequent train and bus services and cycle routes. The majority of new dwellings be accommodated within the existing mixed use, medium density (townhouse) and high density (apartment) zoned sites which are concentrated along the pacific highway corridor and around the local centres of Turramurra, Gordon, Lindfield, and St Ives.”
Even after the suburb of Gordon punished the most by over development, both Liberal Gordon ward Councillors Barbara Ward and Simon Lennon voted for the UFS including more development for Gordon, whilst sparing the suburb of Roseville with its existing R4 zoned locations, a decision that I find puzzling.
I would recommend Ku-ring-gai Could submit a revised plan to the NSW government for the suburbs of Lindfield, Roseville, Turramurra and St Ives transport zones, including a reduced development zone, existing heritage properties excluded.
I believe it’s a reasonable proposition that those suburbs that haven’t been developed at least share the development burden already carried by other communities within Ku-ring-gai.
Ku-ring-gai must engage and find the ambit or common ground, statements such as “we are going to war” are unhelpful.
Ku-ring-gai Council itself planned to build the now defunct Lindfield Village Hub having had its 9 million grant withdrawn by the new state government. The proposal was to build three behemoth 9 storey residential towers.
Council has an approved a high-rise residential DA via the Lindfield library site and supports a high-rise tower above Roseville RSL.
It seems council is anti-high-rise, but left to their own devices “you can’t stop progress” applies.
The fact remains, there is very little opposition at a federal or state level by the Labor/ Greens/Teals to opposing increased housing.
To this writer therefore, facing the undeniable reality of our situation, the only real way forward I believe is to negotiate, not as victors, but as a community that did what it thought best to uphold and protect its values.