Several residents have enquired about tomorrow’s extraordinary meeting so I write to explain my position.
The urgency to act has been forced upon by the State Government, which imposed the default TOD policy onto our f our suburbs in May 2024. We already have developers preparing development applications that will permanently change the character of our heritage conservation areas, and the only way to protect these HCAs is to quickly introduce an alternate plan that meets the state?s policy objectives. The more than we fluff around and delay, the more extensive the destruction will be. We also have a duty to give all landowners and residents greater certainty about what will be happening next.
The reason why this comes in the form of an extraordinary meeting is that an ordinary meeting will delay the outcome by at least two months, thus exposing our HCAs to further dectruction. We couldn?t do it in time for the October meeting both because the scenarios were still being developed, and also because the agenda had been finalised before councillors were sworn in. We also can?t do it at the 26 November meeting because there would not be enough time to do a proper public exhibition before Christmas / New Year, resulting in a final decision that?s delayed from February to April. The two month delay results in more HCAs being destroyed, and the exhibition material becoming outdated very quickly. Plus it is the public exhibition, not the ordinary meeting, where public feedback is critical to future outcomes.
Tomorrow’s decision is merely to put scenarios out for public exhibition. It is the start of a process where a range of ideas are displayed for discussion. There are multiple scenarios, and having a scenario up does not mean that councillors, council, or council staff have endorsed its implementation. Each scenario has strengths and flaws, and they are merely there to inform residents on the range of what is possible so as to elicit an informed discussion and feedback process.
I expect the legal action to be ongoing with the next step being court-ordered mediation on 21 November 2024. Both the legal action and these scenarios are linked, with council unanimously voting for both on 08 May 2024. My own view is that the State Government has not followed the law in introducing its Housing SEPP changes, and the reason why the planning minister repeatedly calls for Ku-ring-gai to withdraw the legal action is because he does not want his non-compliance to be found by the court. But even if Ku-ring-gai does win the legal action, it does not permanently stop development. The State Government will still have two years before the next State Election to have a second crack at legally introducing TOD v2, and so it?s important for Ku-ring-gai to have alternate scenarios identified and ready to go.
All of this drama could have easily been avoided had the NSW Government respected Ku-ring-gai’s multiple requests for a deferred commencement. Our intent all along has been to publicly consult on scenarios and establish a plan within a 12 month timeframe, but the NSW Government has not been reasonable in its dealings to date.
I actually don?t know what council will resolve tomorrow night. Will the councillors support any of these scenarios going out to the public? I don?t know. Obviously I think it?s a good idea to have a range of scenarios for discussion, but it?s a democracy so we?ll wait to see what the council collectively decides.
