Rogue plan riles residents

BY PETER McCALLUM

A rogue masterplan for Bondi Junction drew an overflow crowd of outraged protesters from Queens Park, Woollahra, Bondi, Bellevue Hill, Bronte and Bondi Junction. They were shocked to learn that bureaucrats in the state’s Planning Department had hatched the scheme without the Minister’s knowledge.

A draft masterplan prepared by Waverley Council allowing limited high-rise for residential development to meet State guidelines was rejected by the State’s Planning Department which had its own vision for what has been described as another Chatswood CBD. Unlike the council plan, this provided for bulkier office buildings with inadequate open space.

Visitors to Chatswood will have experienced the dark deserted streets once office workers have left, making the area one of Sydney’s unfriendliest night-time environments. By day, the area is in almost perpetual shade and frequently subjected to severe wind tunnel effects. Bondi Junction’s ridge-top location, already buffeted on windy days, would experience significantly worse wind blasts.

Coogee MP Paul Pearce, appalled at the action of the misguided mavericks of the Planning Department, organised a tri-partisan public meeting. Despite differences within the council on tactical moves, all three parties oppose the amended masterplan and were represented at the public meeting, assisted by independent experts.  Richard Bronovski, diplomat, lawyer, mediator and communicator, chaired the meeting.

Also at the meeting was planner and lawyer John Mant, a former ICAC acting commissioner, anti-corruption “watchdog”, and consultant to Waverley Council. Building and landscape architect Roger Barratt provided the meeting with an alternative vision of open spaces among residential developments, an approach already adopted in Leichhardt and St Leonards, and successfully implemented overseas.

The panel included Waverley Mayor Sally Betts, Greens MLC Sylvia Hale, Vaucluse MP Peter Debnam and Coogee MP, Paul Pearce.

Mayor Betts told how the council had been horrified at the increased height controls which did not reflect the character of Bondi Junction as a residential and shopping gateway to a popular tourist area. Where now there was an emphasis on locating residents near a public transport hub to reduce car use, the bureaucrats’ new emphasis on office space would push residents away.

Paul Pearce clarified the planning process of local councils charged with implementing state guidelines and spoke of how the system had recently changed. He emphasised the importance of people’s communication with government to ensure their wishes were understood and assured one resident that she wasn’t expected to write technical submissions, just a straightforward letter expressing her concerns about the changes.

In a show of unity, Peter Debnam and Mr Pearce appealed to everyone at the meeting to write to Planning Minister Kristina Keneally, and to send them a copy.

Letters from the public could mean the difference between considered development of our area to meet current and future needs or a win for the faceless bureaucrats.

There has to be an avalanche of letters: handwritten ones are fine.

Postal addresses:  Kristina Kenneally, Planning Minister, Level 35 Governor Macquarie Tower,1 Farrer Place,   Sydney, 2000.

Copies to: Paul Pearce, Coogee MP, 80 Bronte Road, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022. Peter Debnam, Vaucluse MP,  Suite 102/332 Oxford St, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022.