Michael Harrison, for Travis McEwen Group, Draft Residential Strategy wrote in 2000.

“Past Ku-ring-gai generations have left a legacy to Sydney of a unique blend of tall forest splendour, large areas of natural habitat (that accommodate a wide range of threatened species) and an extensive architectural heritage. It is incumbent on this generation to preserve and where possible improve upon this legacy for the future”.

“(In Ku-ring-gai) the areas where much of the beautifully designed heritage housing is located are typically near the Pacific Highway/Railway ridgeline where the topography drops away either side towards the bushland habitat and tall forest which houses Sydney’s largest variety of endangered and threatened species”.

“The two issues – the protection of the natural environment and extensive areas of built and landscape heritage – are valuable legacies of previous generations. The onus is firmly on the current generation to very carefully plan and design new development in order to leave future generations with a better environment”.

“The objective is that each individual development must result in a net environmental improvement (e.g. stormwater flow/quality and tree canopy protection – both fundamental to protecting biodiversity in Ku-ring-gai).”

“Stormwater runoff, sewerage overflows and other negative impacts from urbanization are major issues in Ku-ring-gai because they affect the ring of National Parks around Ku-ring-gai”.

“The importance of maintaining and enhancing the extensive tree canopy in Ku-ring-gai is a key issue because the canopy enables “biolinkages” with the surrounding National Parks for a wide variety of species”

“Ku-ring-gai exhibits environmental splendour of such a scale it is of national significance.” “Unique features of Ku-ring-gai include:

• Most of the last remnants in the Sydney “bioregion” of the toweringly tall Blue Gum forests (the “bioregion” extends from Nelson Bay to Bateman’s Bay and from the coast to the mountains).
• The largest number of threatened species (plants and animals) in the bioregion for a local government area. It is noteworthy that Ku-ring-gai has similar numbers of bird and plant species as the entire British Isles.
• 4 National Parks in and around Ku-ring-gai:
• Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
• Lane Cove National Park
• Garigal National Park
• Dalrymple Hay Forest National Park (Nature Reserve)”.