The long awaited draft District Plan North by the Greater Sydney Commission has been released. Unfortunately, it is long on rhetoric but short on detail.The Northern District is one of six districts covering Sydney. So an area the size of Chatswood west Ward slides into insignificance in the wider scheme of things. This is further exacerbated now that the Greater Sydney Commission has grouped the Northern and Central Districts into one of three ‘cities’ within Sydney – Sydney East.

Whilst there is interesting predictions on population growth and jobs, where additional people are to be housed is not shown, although there are suggestions that infill housing in our district will be important. There are ambitious targets for affordable and social housing, but again no details as to how these will be funded. When it comes to jobs, it seems more of the same, with jobs expected to be created within the existing CBDs. However, there is no proof that the Commission can better the Joint Regional Planning Panels and Planning Assessment Commission who have violated Willoughby’s Local Environmental Plan and converted cast amounts of commercial land (particularity in the Chatswood CBD) to residential.

Looking at supporting maps, there does not seem to be any significant open space initiatives in what might become the Council of the Lower North Shore.