Rosebery residents suspect McDonalds hidden agenda

There are many varied opinions within the community of the value of large fast food chains.  Some love them for the convenience and the employment opportunities they create for young people, while others loathe them because of their unhealthy food and generally poor environmental and industrial relations track records.

A roadside meeting with Rosebery residents concerned about the McDonalds plan

The residents of Rosebery however have a number of other problems with plans for a new 24 hour McDonalds opening in their suburb.

New City Plan sells out Erskineville

A Council’s Local Environment Plan (LEP) is the blueprint for how development will proceed throughout their local government area for many years into the future.  It sets out where people will live, work, shop and go for recreation, what sort of buildings they will live in and what sort of facilities are available. 

Making sure such plans are in line with community expectations is one of the most important jobs a Councillor has and it is for this reason that I felt I had to vote against the adoption of the City of Sydney’s new LEP.

Rezonings a gift for developers, too bad for Council and residents

After sweeping to power on a promise to create a new transparent and accountable planning system in NSW the Liberal government are already proceeding to do just the opposite with a raft of spot rezonings currently being considered, including on sites in the City of Sydney.

Ashmore Estate development public meeting, 22nd Feburary, Erskineville Town Hall

Plans to redevelop the Ashmore industrial estate in Erskineville into a high density residential complex are coming left right and centre.

A view of what Ashmore Estate may look like (in grey) under plans currently proposed, as seen from Sydney Park.

While we are still waiting for the current state government to rule on a plan proposed by the previous government to build 22 storey apartments on the site (as previously discussed here) a DA is before the Central Sydney Planning Committee (also ultimately government controlled) for a development of up to eight stories on another part of the site.

Barangaroo review – affordable housing and a skate park?

This week, after much anticipation, the report of the review into Barangaroo was released to the public.  My Greens colleague David Shoebridge and Australian’s for Sustainable Development  (a group of which I’m proud to be a part) have made plenty of comments in the media about the various wins and losses the report contains, such as a recommendation to remove the hotel in the harbour but leave the grossly expensive  headland park as planned and pass off many of the controversial decisions to the good graces of developers Lend Lease. 

I want to talk about two other issues covered in the report that have received less attention – housing and the planning of Barangaroo Central.

Barangaroo review rolling on

Hundreds of individuals, businesses, councils and community groups have made submissions to the Review into Barangaroo and over the last month dozens of them have been given the opportunity to speak with the Chairs of the Review and explain their feelings on the project. 

This morning I met with the reviewers on behalf of the NSW Greens, along with our planning spokesperson David Shoebridge MLC, and am feeling cautiously optimistic that they have heard some of our concerns.

Barangaroo work to push ahead regardless of review

The Barangaroo Delivery Authority (BDA) have declared that work on its controversial development is to continue as planned, despite the project being currently under review.  This calls into question exactly what the review is intended to achieve. 

Ashmore estate – hello highrise!

Plans for the Ashmore estate in Erskineville, imposed on the City by the previous state government, are far more in the interest of developers than the community.

Over the last few months the Department of Planning has written to the City a number of times demanding changes be made to the draft Local Environment Plan so as to allow massive overdevelopment of the site.  They told us that we had to change the zoning to a ‘mixed use’ zoning that allows a wide range of commercial development, they told us that we had to increase the maximum height allowed from 9 stories to 19 and that we had to more than double the allowable density.

This will completely destroy the plan for this site to become a new suburban village precinct and may cause some serious issues with such large buildings directly beneath a major flight path.

The changes were made at the request of the site’s owners, the property developer Goodman, who donated several thousand dollars to Kristina Keneally during her first term in parliament. 

A representative from Goodman addressed a public meeting on the issue on the 29th of March but the content of the presentation had the potential to be very misleading – all they spoke about was three 19 story towers on the site. It made it sound like that was going to be the sum of the development there. They never mentioned that the rest of the site will be covered in other buildings as high as 12 stories.   The several hundred local residents who turned up wouldn’t have a bar of it, they were extremely unhappy with this being imposed on them.

While this problem had been created by the former government the new government can’t shirk it’s responsibilities on the issue.  It will be an important early test of the character of the new government to see whether they allow the City to fix the plan or whether they stick to the course set by Labor and allow developer interests to dominate.

In the meantime I would suggest that anyone concerned about the future of the area make a submission to Council as soon as possible. The more people speak out on the issue the more Council and the government will realise they can’t proceed with this massive overdevelopment. 

Submissions can be made online at http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Development/CityPlan/DraftCityPlanMakingASubmission.asp

Barangaroo skate park a step closer

While there has been a lot of bad news surrounding Barangaroo this week there has been one positive story emerge from it all.  The hard work of two committed young skaters, Zane and Rory, and their mother, Juliet Barr, has secured a promise from Shadow Planning Minister Brad Hazzard to recommend a skate park be built at Barangaroo.  See this article for more details.

This is a significant development because after the 26th of March Mr Hazzard is likely to be Planning Minsiter and have final say on what happens at Barangaroo.

Juliet and I have been campaigning for a skate park at Barangaroo since early last year.  As outlined in this letter I have sent to Brad Hazzard on the matter, I successfully put a motion through Council which will see Council and the Barangaroo Delivery Authority work together on this project.

Congratulations to Juliet, Zane and Rory for all the hard work they have put into getting us this far.  The Greens and I will be keeping an eye on the progress at Barangaroo to make sure this long-awaited skate park is finally built.

Barangaroo exemption a toxic act

The decision by Planning Minister Tony Kelly to exempt Barangaroo from the usual laws that apply to contaminated land may harm our harbour and the health of Sydney residents for generations.

Last Wednesday, just two days before the government went into caretaker mode in the lead up to the state election, Minister Kelly changed the state land remediation policy to specifically exclude Barangaroo.  The decision also came just days before judgement was to be handed down in a court case over the matter launched by Australians for Sustainable Development (AfSD), which legal experts predicted would find against Barangaroo.

AfSD argued that the Barangaroo development had not followed the required procedures for the remediation of contaminated land.  However the changes to the rules mean those procedures are no longer required at Barangaroo, removing the main plank in the court case.

Kelly and Premier Keneally have been on the defensive ever since, continually insisting that the change to the rules was simply a clarification.  However the new text of the planning policy specifically states Barangaroo is excluded whilst ignoring other major projects, so the clarification argument holds very little water.

Sydney Harbour now faces an uncertain future with work to begin on the project in a matter of days and none of the normal protections against contamination in place.