Council to hold Public Meeting on Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby Merger Proposal

 Willoughby City Council is inviting residents to express their views on the State Government’s Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby merger proposal at a public meeting from 4pm – 5.45pm on Monday 21 March, 2016 in the Council Chambers at 31 Victor Street, Chatswood. Speakers will be required to register on arrival.

Council will listen to views expressed at the public meeting to assist with its preparation of a submission to the Delegate, Ian Reynolds, as part of the Public Inquiry into the merger proposal. This meeting is separate from the formal Public Inquiry meeting being conducted by the Delegate.

Council will finalise its submission on the Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby merger proposal at the Council Meeting of Tuesday 29 April, 2016.

Public Inquiry

The merger proposal for Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby councils is in addition to a previous proposal for Willoughby and North Sydney Councils only, and therefore a separate Public Inquiry for this new three-Council merger proposal must be conducted.

Community members who wish to make a formal submission must do so by:

1)       Attending the Delegate-run Public Inquiry

• 5pm – 10pm, Tuesday 22 March 2016 at The Chatswood Club, 11 Help Street, Chatswood
• 5pm – 10pm, Wednesday 23 March 2016 at The Mosman Club, 719 Military Road, Mosman

2)       Making a submission online at the Council Boundary Review website www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au. The closing date for submissions is 8 April 2016.

As this is a new and separate process, previous submissions on the North Sydney and Willoughby merger proposal will not be considered for this new proposal.

For further information on the public meetings, submission process, and topics relevant to the consideration of merger proposals, please visitwww.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au

New research indicates that demand for office space within the Chatswood CBD is returning. After the large floor plan sites in the Macquarie area opened, demand for the small sized office floors in Chatswood waned. The recent upswing in demand has been described as a “perfect storm of demand for commercial space“.

Commercial leasing is heating up as population grows. New residents means new workers, this then generates demand for office space.

In Chatswood over the past five years, commercial vacancies bottomed around at 21%. Now the figure is 12%. It is expected that more businesses will move to Chatswood from St Leonards where residential conversion is taking over commercial spaces.

Over the past five years on the Chatswood CBD, the State Government approved many conversions of commercial buildings to residential use. It was argue at the time that such a move was very short-sighted.Maybe the next news we will here is that there is an undersupply of office space in Chatswood.

• The Sun Herald 21 February says the Baird Governmment has taken a first step towards the Hong Kong pr ivate railway model . It has issued  a tender to HK private company MTR to design high  rise towers above six new stations on the metro City and Southwest rail line.  The  six sites. Include  Chatswood!
• MTR  is part of the consortium that will operateSydneys Metro Northwest.  It has lobbied the Baird Govt to adopt its Value Capture model, which lowers construction costs in exchange for property development.
• Companies have been asked to include concept designs for, the  development of the airspace, which could cover technical  and engineering advice on what is possible, to market testing of  what the real estate was worth, and likely tenants.

The biggest change to low rise residential density in 25 years is about to hit us.

The State Government is proposing to allow:

* 2 dwellings on blocks of 400 sq.m

* 4 dwellingss on blocks of 500 sq.m

* 10 dwellongs on blocks of 600 sqM. Most blocks in West Ward are between 400 – 900 sq.m. So this can have MAJOR IMPACT on the quality of living in standard, low-rise residential areas

And you will not have any right to object. Applications are deemed to be complyong when approved by a private certifier.

The best you get is a notification AFTER the development is approved.

Whilst the Council submission argues against many of the proposals it contains some concerning statements. For example, Council officers say that perhaps 3 -5 dwellings might be appropriate for lots of 600 sq.m. this was near the end of hundreds of pages of reports.

I suspect Councilors did not fully read their papers as no one moved for that recommendation to be removed.

On another matter, Councillors agreed to only field 1 member of a JRPP Committee if 1 of 2 Council appointed members were absent. JRPPs approve the large developments (such as 688-692 Pacific Highway).

With the threat that Councils will be disbanded, have our Councilors given up on the things we elected them to do?

READ LATEST NEWS IN COMMENTS BELOW

Approval of a bulk power supply connection point at the south-eastern end of the Sydney Metro Northwest has not yet been completed. According to Sydney Metro, the most suitable supply for the Sydney Metro Northwest at the south-eastern end has been identified as Ausgrid’s Willoughby Subtransmission Substation (STS). The proposal is therefore required to provide a dedicated 33kV connection between the Ausgrid Willoughby STS and the Sydney Metro Northwest (at Chatswood North/Roseville) in order to meet the reliable supply of electricity requirements. Continue reading →

We have received the following information from Mayor Gail Giles-Gidney:

The following submission regarding the proposed amalgamation of Willoughby, North Sydney and parts of Lane Cove Councils has been lodged with the Boundaries Commission. The submission is based on the resolution carried unanimously by Association members.

The Chatswood West Ward Progress Association represents approximately 18,000 persons within the Willoughby City area. The issue of amalgamation has been discussed at the Association on numerous ocassions. At its last meeting, the Association determined:

Prefer not to be amalgamated, however, if amalgamated we favour:

 Popularly elected Mayor
 4 wards of three Councillors
 Part-time Councilors (as at present)
 Pre-election local government training of candidates
 Centrally located office (St Leonards)
 Inclusion of the whole of St Leonards within the new LGA
 Name of new Council: Lower North Shore Council
 Maintenance of Progress Associations rather than Precinct Committees
 Continuation of Willoughby Council services and the E-restore Levy

There was also some support for including the whole of the current Lane Cove Council area in the amalgamation of Willoughby and North Sydney Councils. This was on the basis of communities of interest. For thirty years prior to 1895, the current Lane Cove area was a Ward of the then Willoughby Municipal Council.

An additional aspects of amalgamations was that it is preferred that LGA boundaries are not down the middle of streets (this can destroy communities of interest). Rather boundaries should be along natural features or the back fences of properties fronting major roads.

At the meeting of the Association last Thursday over 100 persons voted against the proposed high rise development between Chatswood Public School and Kenneth Slessor Park.

Below is an extract from the Minutes of the meeting plus links to various documents associated with the ‘No’ campaign.

Comments can be lodge at email@willoughby.nsw.gov.au by 5 PM Friday 26 February 2016.

688-692 Pacific Highway: Over eighty residents attended the meeting to consider this matter. Needless to say their was a unanimous call for Council to refuse this application. A Petition was available for signing and residents were briefed on a variety of actions they could take.

The main basis for objections raised were:

• Proposal massively over the planning regulations for the site
• Significant loss of amenity for nearby neighbours
• Dangers to primary school children associated with increased traffic to the site
• Perception of inappropriate handling of the application by Council’s planning officers

The community response to the proposal (due to Willoughby Coincil by 25 February 2016 will include a petition, letters of objection, lobbying of Councilors and a press campaign.

MOTION

This meeting of CWWPA moves that:

• Willoughby Council oppose any high rise tower development adjacent to Chatswood Public School and adjacent to Kenneth Slessor Park and rejects any rezoning of 688-692 Pacific Highway and thus rejects the development proposal for this land now before Council.
• Such a rezoning would completely destroy Council’s long established principle of maintaining the highway as forming the natural boundary between the CBD and the dormitory residential areas to the west.
• We believe the Council Planning Manager’s initial recommendation to Council to support the development “in principle” failed to address clearly stated major concerns as expressed in the commissioned Urban Design Report by Kennedy and Associates:

“the previous approach of allowing the Pacific Highway to provide a natural demarcation between the CBD and its surrounds was sensible, practical and manageable.” and… (Council must consider) “whether it is an appropriate strategy to permit high rise development of this type on the western side of the Highway and whether it will establish a precedent that will open the doors for other similar developments along the western side of the Highway” ¹ and “we think council need to be very careful in their assessment of this development.” It…will have immediately redefined the urban character of Chatswood for the entire extent of the highway between at least Freeman Rd and Railway St, and potentially much further.” …“this is the key urban design question raised by this proposal.”

Planning Proposal 2015-3 (3)

Stop high RISE FLYER (2)

Address to CWWPA (1)

PETITION (SHORT) TO WILLOUGHBY CITY COUNCIL

NOTE: Submissions close on 25th February 2016.

At a recent meeting of the Willoughby Traffic Committee the issue of changes to the Beaconsfield lights we rejected by the RMS with the matter being referred to Lane Cove Council who have a veto on any changes being made.

The reason the lights were put on the Agenda of the meeting was that Lane Cove Council had previously decided not to concur with any changes.

The most recent proposal was a compromise that would allow a right teurn from Beaconsfield without a thru traffic movement into Ralston.

Many Willoughby residents are disgusted with the RMS’s approach to this matter and will re-group to consider possible next steps.