Council's Quiet Divestment of Community Land In a controversial decision in June, council resolved behind closed doors the future of ‘surplus’ parcels of ‘operational’ land for divestment. Ratepayers deserve to know which council owned land is described as ‘surplus...
NSW Heritage Act Reforms In May 2021, the NSW Government announced a major review of the Heritage Act, 1977 which would contribute to its legislative reform. The NSW Heritage Act is the single most important instrument in our state that identifies, protects and...
The challenge of protecting and enhancing Ku-ring-gai’s character! Following on from December’s article on Ku-ring-gai’s Local Character Study, we now have the next iteration of these Broad Local Character statements for review as a result of comments received from...
Council is seeking input into the development of Ku-ring-gai’s Local Character in order to manage development ‘in a way that conserves and enhances Ku-ring-gai’s unique visual and landscape character’. This is an absolutely essential and important exercise and we fear...
NSW Planning is going forward with plans for high rise and high density in Sydney when all the facts suggest that the Covid-19 epidemic has changed the way people will live and work in Sydney. Will this be our last pandemic? Most likely not. This one may take years to...
Ku-ring-gai Council is preparing yet another Residential Housing Strategy, a planning process driven by the NSW Dept of Planning to periodically rezone more and more of our established garden suburbs for ever denser and taller apartment blocks. As we have expressed in...
New laws are urgently needed to protect Ku-ring-gai’s bushland, forested landscapes and biodiversity. Australia’s unprecedented 2019-2020 bushfires have changed everything. Never before has Australia witnessed an 11,000km fire edge that has burnt so much of...
Ku-ring-gai Council has prepared a draft 20 year Local Strategic Planning Statement (LSPS) for Ku-ring-gai that meets the objectives and population targets established by NSW Planning, and its implementation arm, the Greater Sydney Commission. All Councils are required to do likewise.
Following many months of deliberation, the Greater Sydney …
‘The Once Lucky Country’ article makes some poignant warnings about where Australia’s cities, especially Sydney and Melbourne, are headed under current planning policies in terms of housing cost, liveability and jobs. The article appeared in the City Journal and is written by Joel Kotkin. He is the presidential fellow in urban futures…
