Submission: Ryde / Hunters Hill LEP & DCP

Download the full submission in pdf format here.

Our Submission on the Ryde/Hunters Hill Local Environment Plans and Development Control Plans for the Gladesville Town Centre and Victoria Road Corridor.

The Hunters Hill Trust does not support these plans for a number of reasons, which are outlined below.

Failure to address the major issues of our time

The basis for the Ryde Hunters Hill plans is the state government’s planning policies for the necessary accommodation of projected massive increase in population over the next decades, particularly in Sydney. The population increases in turn are based on projections to serve a continuing expanding economy, which includes the provision of increased numbers of consumers, increased consumption and an increased workforce to service all this growth.

Such a model is entirely at odds with the realities the world is facing now. With Peak Oil already reached, resource depletion continuing a pace, climate change a reality which is already impacting on our lives, there is a clear need for an economic model that is sustainable.

The current global economic crisis shows how badly the whole system is founded and a clear warning about the dangers of relying on the impossible goal of continuous growth.

The Ryde Hunters Hill plans do not even begin to address these major issues. Rather they are designed to compound the problems arising from the antiquated, inadequate and irrelevant planning policies of the state government.

The plans are already out of date

Even in relation to the latest guidelines of the NSW Department of Planning, the Gladesville Town Centre and Victoria Road Corridor plans are completely out of date, for example:

The NSW Department of Planning (DOP) recently convened a group of experts to come up with practical advice for development near roads carrying high volumes of traffic. The group’s recommendations have informed new DOP guidelines and influenced a shift in focus away from the concept of ‘renewable corridors’ published in the 2005 Metropolitan Strategy.

Renewal corridors were loosely defined as areas 500 metres either side of major transport corridors. The policy has shifted. Instead, it is preferred that new residential development will be concentrated in a series of centres near (but not directly on) major roads, with increased housing density still within walking distance of high-frequency public transport but with less sensitive uses lining the road.

The DoP expert panel identified a number of health impacts resulting from living near major roads:

• Fine particles and nitrogen oxides from motor vehicle exhaust affects the lungs and heart;

• Nitrogen dioxide also affects the lungs and can aggravate asthma:

• Volatile organic compounds are associated with a range of effects including headaches, eye irritation, cancer and impaired lung development in children,

• Road traffic noise has well documented psychological and physiological effects; ne of the most concerning of these is sleep disturbance that leads to learning impairment in children, however, traffic noise can affect all age groups* (to say nothing of a greatly increased risk of injury from traffic accidents because of the proximity of the major road).

The report notes that, the best way of mitigating the effects of traffic noise and omissions is to locate sensitive development away from the direct impacts of major roads.

The controls contained in the Ryde and Hunters Hill DCPs and LEPs are in response to the Master Plan, which in turn was directed by the NSW government’s 2005 Metropolitan Strategy.

The plans are designed to facilitate the construction of mostly “mixed use” structures along Victoria Road to heights of 19 and 22 metres – that is six and seven stories. Most of these new, mixed-use structures are anticipated to be residential. All will be directly along one of Sydney’s busiest roads with minimum set backs from the kerb, making them entirely inconsistent with the NSW Department of Planning’s good design principles.

The failure of the plans’ objective

The plans thus fail to fulfil their objective to create a “safe and attractive environment”. Instead they will facilitate the creation of a clearly unhealthy environment, and one, with its proximity to speeding traffic, which is far from safe.

In supporting the current proposals, Hunters Hill and Ryde Councils are potentially opening themselves up to liability issues down the track through their failure to care for the health of thousands of residents despite their knowledge of the problem.

The creation of a ghetto

Who on earth would choose to live alongside one of Sydney’s busiest roads? There is little doubt that the proposed housing development along Victoria Road will become the abode of last resort for those at the bottom of the housing market. It will become a ghetto of low income renters in multi storey tenements owned by absentee landlords. This will adversely impact on them directly as well as those living in the existing suburban streets nearby.

Gladesville Town Centre Conservation Area under pressure

The inclusion of the Conservation Area in the Town Centre and the inclusion of additional heritage items in the plans are to be commended. However the building height and floor space ratios in the Town Centre will inevitably ensure the demise of the essential two-storey character that Paul Davies refers to in his report.

The creation of contributory buildings, as recommended by Davies, has not happened. This further reduces the potential to maintain the character of the existing shopping centre and diminishes the heritage values of the study area.

Problems of scale

The plans allow for building heights of generally around 19 and 22 metres with some areas of 25 metres and one area of 33 metres. At a floor-to-floor height of 3 metres, the various height controls allow for 6, 7, 8 and 11 storey buildings. These will be from 3 to 5 times the height of most of the buildings in the study area, which are mostly single or two storeys. The height controls will ensure the complete destruction of the existing character and are totally inappropriate.

The scale of such buildings will have a major overshadowing impact on surrounding houses and streets and will overlook existing backyards causing loss of privacy for the residents there.

Problems of aesthetics and good design

Apart from setting a number of numerical standards, there is no real way the plans are able to control the aesthetics and design standards of new building in the study area. The most recent development in Massey Street is an example of the sort of architecture that can be expected in future developments.

The housing development along Victoria Road, which will be pitched at the lower end of the market, will result in cheap construction and an even lower standard of design.

Problems of traffic

The increased density will increase traffic. Increased traffic along Victoria Road will have an adverse impact on traffic flow along this major traffic artery. It will also have a major impact on traffic and parking in the surrounding streets, particularly around the Town Centre. For example the problems currently faced by the residents of Cowell Street will be doubled or tripled by the future development.

Problems of consultation and communication

The plans bear little relationship to the ideas that were discussed in the working groups during the development of the Master Plan. Where, for instance is the plaza behind the shops near the shopping centre and where is the park opposite the RSL club?

The presentation of the plans for Gladesville and Victoria Road is unnecessarily complex, hard to read and difficult to access. It required 19 separate downloads from the web. As well, Hunters Hill’s plans are separate from Ryde’s plans and each Council has a separate set of zonings, LEPs and DCPs, with no overall plan showing the total development. To understand the proposal requires an incredible effort and endless cross-referencing between documents.

I sincerely hope that this level of complexity was not a deliberate ploy to make the understanding of the proposal so difficult that most punters would have given up the attempt.

Conclusion

The Trust urges Ryde and Hunters Hill Councillors to think again about these plans and to take a long view. We urge you to consider their impact not only on our children but also on our children’s children.

In 2030, what on earth will people say about the fact that we facilitated the creation of the Victoria Road slums and caused the third-world levels of health and life expectancy of the people who live there? And why is there nothing left of the 19th and 20th century character of the area except a church and an old stone post office?

Tony Coote, President Hunters Hill Trust

* The items in italics are quoted from an article in the January/February 2009 edition of the NSW Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects Bulletin.