A site of more than local significance
The site at Cunninghams Reach has significance for the whole of Sydney not just Lane Cove. It contains a public park used by people from all over the metropolitan area and beyond. It is part of the Lane Cove River, which flows through a number of local government areas.
The site is directly opposite Boronia Park, which is a major bushland park in Sydney and contains a section of the Great North Walk. There are many aboriginal sites in the vicinity.
Cunninghams Reach makes a significant contribution to the character of this part of the Lane Cove River.
Notification of the proposal
In light of the wider significance of this site, Lane Cove Council has been remiss in its notification of the proposal. Hunters Hill Council and Hunters Hill residents in the immediate vicinity of the site were not officially notified of the proposal and were not included in the consultation process. Unofficially we have become aware of it only this week, which is well after the closing time for submissions.
The Hunters Hill Trust, which last year celebrated its 40th anniversary, has been involved in many battles for the protection of the heritage and character of Hunters Hill and its immediate surrounds. We have also been involved in a number of battles to keep public land in public ownership and use. Recently this involved the fight to keep the Defence Lands around the harbour in the public domain. This battle ended with a significant victory for the combined resident-action groups, with the creation of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
Back in the 1970s a major battle was fought to prevent the extension of the freeway from the Figtree Bridge across the river to the western shores of the river in Boronia Park. This road would have been directly opposite Cunninghams Reach and would have destroyed the mangroves and bushland along much of the western shoreline of the river.
The Trust continues to maintain a deep concern for any development along the Lane Cove River.
Because we only became aware of this proposal in the last few days, we hope that Lane Cove Councillors will consider our submission.
The Hunters Hill Trust is opposed to this development application
We believe it will have a significant adverse impact on the river and its surrounds that is shared at this location between Hunters Hill and Lane Cove as itemised below.
a) The alienation of Public Land
The retention of public land in public use should be one of the main tenets of proper governance for local councils. It is shameful that Lane Cove Council is even considering this proposal.
b) The destruction of parkland and bush
Much of the bushland you now see along the river has been gained through the closure of many polluting activities that lined the river for most of the 20th century and the regeneration of those sites. These sites included the sand-dredging infrastructure at Kitty’s Creek; the Council dump at Buffalo Creek, the sewerage station at the bottom of Barons Crescent, the Clifford Love factory at the Epping Road Bridge etc.
Cunninghams Reach itself was won back from private use as part of a sand-washing facility some decades ago and landscaped by Lane Cove Council for a public park, which ironically included the removal of a boat ramp in order to address the adverse impact of boat trailer parking.
The park is now considered one of the jewels along the Lane Cover River both for its contribution to the unique bushland character of the river and for its use for passive recreation.
c) The impact of the building itself and associated works.
Even if it were considered appropriate to construct a public building in the public park at Cunninghams Reach, then this particular proposal would be entirely inappropriate for the following reasons:
The scale of buildings along this part of the river is domestic. The proposed Sydney University rowing club facility is more than 57 metres long and, for much of the elevation that fronts the river, is more than 10 metres high, which is way beyond domestic scale. The attached photos (taken from just in front of the proposal) shows the heritage-listed former boatshed* across the river timber in Hunters Hill in the top photo and the same building with the Sydney University rowing club facility superimposed on it in the photo below.
This is epitomised by the location of a number of rainwater tanks along the northwestern façade so that the building seems to thumb its nose at the river.
This is a further alienation of the site, both in the area taken up by the road and with the introduction of vehicles into what was previously an entirely pedestrian domain.
The proposal is for the creation of 6 additional car spaces in the existing car park in areas currently occupied by landscaping, which has been specifically designed to soften the car-parking area. The removal of this landscaping will turn the car park into an unrelieved and ugly asphalt tarmac.
There are 19 existing parking places on the site. The proposal adds 6 more spaces (at the expense of the landscaping) for a total of 25 places. This will leave just 1 additional place if only 3 eights’ crews arrive at 5.30 in the morning for a training row. The coach will snap this up and so there will be no parking left for the general public. In reality the parking facilities are totally inadequate for the scale of this proposal and its anticipated usage, making the point very clearly that the proposal is way out of scale with the site.
While the proposal belatedly introduced a couple of facilities for public use, including public toilets, a fish cleaning table and the supposed access to the pontoon and ramp, the reality is that the public will not feel welcome in that part of the site north of the new access road, particularly when rowing boats are being moved up and down from the pontoon.
d) The “working harbour” justification for the proposal
The working harbour concept is all about retaining existing maritime facilities on the harbour foreshores rather than replacing them with high density housing, as is happening up and down the Parramatta River and elsewhere. Some supporters of this proposal have used this argument to justify their support for it.
The idea that replacing a beautiful little park, much used by picnickers, dog walkers, fisher folk, and baptism and wedding parties with a privately owned facility for a tiny, elite group of rowers is somehow part of “the working harbour” is entirely spurious.
Tony Coote
President of The Hunters Hill Trust
*My own house
]]>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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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