• More French connections with Hunters Hill
• President’s report
• Reports on local Reserves
• Trees
• Building news
• HH Council’s draft Local Environment Plan

The extension of Oval 3  at Boronia Park  has a massive, uncontrolled impact on the Lane Cove River.  Why has this continued, unabated for so long???

keeping the character of the area?  protecting public spaces?  trees?  community services ?

Comments on the new Development Control Plan

sediment washes into Boronia Park

Those of you living nearby will have been disturbed over recent months by the numbers of heavy trucks entering the Park, loaded up with material removed for the widening of the M2 and delivering many thousand tonnes of fill to substantially raise the footprint and level of Oval no3.  Funding for the reconstruction is being provided via the Hunter’s Hill Rugby Club which is apparently also controlling the works and has not been required to submit a development application.  No consent has been given as Hunter’s Hill Council considers the works fall under ‘Division 12 – Parks and other public reserves Clause 66 Exempt development of SEPP (Infrastructure) 2007’. However, under the Act for Exempt Development, works need to be “carried out by or on behalf of a public authority” which would not include the Rugby Club.

We have questioned whether due process in the planning phase has occurred with the required assessment of environmental impacts, given that Boronia Park is Heritage listed Crown  Land and contains sensitive bushland with endangered ecological communities and species protected under both Commonwealth and State legislation.  It also provides a significant habitat corridor and has received valuable restoration work by both volunteers and contractors over many years.
Heavy rains over summer have resulted in failures of the sedimentation fence and significant discharge of the imported fill into good bushland, along the Great North Walk and into the street below with drainage to the Lane Cove river and the harbour (see photos
from Alister Sharp, 21.1.12).  The project has many months to go yet and the Society has urged Council to ensure that ecological impacts will be effectively managed and controlled for the duration of the works and beyond.

With this major reconstruction, not identified in the Plan of Management (2002) which was the subject of extensive prior consultation, yet again a Plan has been over-ridden to favour special interests.  It seems those with available funds to spend can have greater access to
our public lands, and with the plans for a Club building – to be built by the Rugby Club where a general use Community Hall was proposed – still under wraps, it is hard to have much confidence that this trend will not continue without considerable local resistance.  In the meantime, Riverglade reserve at Tarban Creek is now undergoing a review of its Plan of Management by Hunter’s Hill Council following protests over conflicting uses of the open space due to a massive increase in provision of soccer fields across the off-leash dog area – again, a management action not indicated in the existing Plan.

runoff to the street and drain

You may be interested in one of Council’s longstanding policies that amongst other things,  promises to

• ‘respond to customer enquiries promptly and efficiently’
• ‘reply to correspondence within ten working days’

Check the policy details for yourself:  what Council has promised

At 102 storeys it was for years the world’s tallest building.  Around  21,000 people work there every day.  It has a total floor area of 257,211  square metres.  Each day’s work on the build produced 612 square metres of  floor space.  It cost, in today’s dollars, around $500 million or $1,944  per square metre.

In my quiet suburban street there is a house being built that has been under  construction since the beginning of October 2009.  For the past 28 months,  six days a week, teams of carpenters, concretors and sundry tradesmen have been  building a two-storey, detached house.  With a floor area of around 200  square metres, it is not a mega-mansion.  However more than $5 million dollars  have already been spent on the build and its completion is still a long way off.

When the house is finally finished, each square metre of floor area will have cost  around $27,500 and each day of its build will have produced a mere 0.9 square  metres of floor space.

The house replaced a perfectly adequate brick bungalow, which was demolished  and carted away.  Then, before the build could even start in earnest,  hundreds of cubic metres of sandstone bedrock were jack hammered out of the  site to join the remains of the old house at the tip.

The house’s fashionable designer has called up only the best and most expensive  materials and fittings and added to its complexity and expense with demanding  and esoteric architectural details.  Consequently the environmental
footprint of the house is massive.  Its profligacy is clearly indicated in  its square metre cost.

As well, the impact of the protracted build on the immediate neighbourhood has  been much greater than that of a more moderate development. For almost two and  a half years our narrow street has been crowded with tradies’ utes.  Large mobile-cranes, skip-trucks, concrete mixers, earth-moving trucks and excavators  regularly visit the building site and stay for hours.  Street closures are  common and there have been a number of accidents.  Parking is a nightmare and walking can be dangerous.

All this aggravation and environmental degradation has been caused by one  individual with more money than sense and a designer who has no regard for the  environment.  What can be done to curb these antisocial endeavours?

How about a profligacy tax on buildings that exceed a certain cost?  And why not include a completion date in the Development Approval and penalise  the building owner for every day that the build goes over that date?

Tony Coote

The wording was researched by Beverley Sherry (image below) historian, author of the book Hunters Hill:  Australia’s Oldest Garden Suburb, and member of the Hunters Hill Trust.  This project of the Hunters Hill Historical Society and Hunters Hill Council was sponsored by the Armati family as part of the Council’s sesquicentenary celebrations.

There will be brochure that shows a map of the sites.  Everyone is invited to the opening event: 10:00 am on Saturday, 19 November at Hunters Hill Town Hall.  This will be followed by a Jacaranda Walk. Enquiries:  9878 9443.

We await the results of the recent community meeting convened by the Health Department.  For more information contact Laura Hendry Parsons 1800 252 050 or email gladesvillemasterplan@kjassoc.com.au.