(image: NDIS)

The community has been increasingly angry and frustrated about the mish-mash of developments in Gladesville that threaten to create long term problems and reduce quality of life.

Hunters Hill Council has decided to develop a new master plan for Gladesville.  Whatever happened to the Gladesville Master Plan that was carefully worked out – with its pedestrian-only laneway, shops and cafes?

Councillors agreed that a new Plan will focus on:

  • Developing active frontages along Victoria Rd with appropriate connectivity into the Gladesville key site
  • Building an overarching vision for development of land, particularly between Pittwater Rd and Batemans Rd fronting Victoria Rd
  • Pedestrian access into and out of the site; including Investigating an above ground walkway from Trim Place into the Gladesville Village amongst other connectivity priorities into the surrounding residential areas
  • Alleviating pressure from increased traffic flows stemming from development in the Gladesville precinct
  • Developing a public pedestrian plaza along Massey lane with appropriate connectivity to the key site/shopping village and Victoria Rd

  • Councils potential to acquire land for the public purpose and improved design outcomes for the community
  • Improving access to public transport and the cycling network
  • Assessment of heritage items and the impact of development of the Gladesville Village to those items
  • Urban design outcomes and place planning priorities as outlined in the Future Gladesville report and the updated DCP for the Gladesville Village
  • The relocation and development of Gladesville Library facilities or other council interfaces within the shopping village or adjoining sites.

Council arrange for an ‘indicative design concept’ to be developed through:

  • holding a public meeting of residents and stakeholders
  • Workshopping concepts with residents and stakeholders
  • Consultation with the Department of Planning.

That current landholders, and any entity’s/individuals who have live applications under consideration be made aware of the development of this master plan and its potential to affect their applications

That the design concept outlined in Part 2 of the motion above be published on the Hunters Hill Council website and, subsequent to being brought back to council, go on public exhibition for comment

That the Department of Planning is made aware of the development of a master plan for this precinct with the view to better  planning/design outcomes being made by way of amendment to the Hunters Hill LEP (2012)

That potential for funding from the Department of Planning for the development of this master plan is sought as appropriate.

Note from Group Manager Development and Regulatory Control

1. In reviewing the current DAs on Victoria Road it is clear that small developments each with substandard carparking arrangements opening onto the potential shareway (for which the legalities have not been worked out) would generate many issues such as – safety, poor urban design, aesthetics, servicing and access legalities.

So to make sense of the commercial area of Gladesville (for all Victoria Road properties – Pittwater down to Cowell Street (possibly further) – a suggestion is that we waive their carparking requirements. They have been upzoned on the premise that they are on an arterial road and have great access to Public Transport – therefore no provision for carparking makes sense. Once you say no carparking – the shareway and Massey lane can be imagined as great pedestrian spaces because they will not have openings to underground carparks on each individual
allotment. This means the developments on Victoria Road will not be so compromised.

To achieve no carparking entails employing a traffic engineer to run the numbers to support our case i.e. they would work with the full development capacity allowed by the controls and model the impacts on the shareway and Massey Lane with multiple openings and high levels of ingress and egress traffic. I imagine they will advise that the shareway and Massey lane may accommodate 1-2 openings to underground parking and based on this we require site amalgamations.

So the end result would be if you can achieve a large site by amalgamation of a number of site along Victoria Road (individual building form and structure must be retained) you could provide for underground parking. If you cannot achieve a large amalgamation they your other option is to develop without carparking provision.

As a sweetener we could offer “Go Get” carspaces in the Council carpark or GSV development.

2. If we require amalgamations/no carparking – this means we would not end up with the “missing tooth” scenario currently an issue with the current Victoria Road Development Applications. Therefore more thought and possibly expert advice is required before we pursue any decisions to buy property.

3. We already have 1 Master Plan and 2 Reviews of the DCP for Gladesville- plus numerous other base study reports. Please see Council webpage: planning & heritage/future Gladesville/ – for a full history of the joint strategic planning for the Gladesville Commercial Area by Hunter’s Hill and City of Ryde (see below for summary table).

[Gladesville Community Group comment: the table that appeared at this point of the note does not copy well into this email. Readers may view the table within Item 3.2 on pdf page 27 of the Agenda for the Council Meeting at the link http://www.huntershill.nsw.gov.au/Page/Download.aspx?c=4546]

4. Masterplans are expensive and take a long time to develop and the architects/urban designers who prepare them are not specialists in traffic resolution issues.