The Gladesville Development Control Plan 2008 seems light years away. Back then we envisaged tree-lined pedestrian ways, and instead we are being offered a gated community in 4 giant towers sitting on a giant carpark. Read more about what is proposed: Gladesville Shopping village and how it fails to comply.
One Comment
The Exhibition of the Gladesville Shopping Centre closes tomorrow. Advice from the Joint Regional Planning Panel suggests that Council had 40 days to determine the application after 6 June 2013.
If correct, this would appear to be a mistake in process, because it would appear to be curious to exhibit a proposal after the date of deemed refusal.
Even more curious, the contention by Councillors that they are somehow not involved in the development, even though it is dependent of the sale of Community Land according to a push and call option. In my humble opinion, if my neighbour created an application, requiring my land, and
it was against my broader interests, I would simply not sell, require my neighbour to reconfigure the design, or request that they do not exploit the full development potential. It is simply curious.
But, subject to calling the co developer, and 3 more Victoria Road property owners to the table, presents the opportunity to create a truly integrated town square that connects the development to the primary school, potentially solves vehicular issues, and links the centre to the waterfront which has beautiful examples of Indigenous artwork.
What an opportunity!
Subject to a wholistic and strategic approach to the Municipality, this presents a viable commercial framework for reinstating a private ferry and rebuilding some of the beautiful wharves, such that we could have a school ferry, and school bicycle network.
Ballpark costings for a large scale pedestrian boulevarde under Victoria Road, housed in a Glasshouse, are $ 3,000,000 without building works, which in a budget of $80,000,000 give some scale to this undertaking.
Food for thought after reading the Trust article on ferry wharves
Regards Caroline Bannon