The Hunters Hill Trust

ordinary visitors & environmental concerns overlooked in Boronia Park

Despite protests from Hunters Hill Trust, Ryde & Hunters Hill Flora & Fauna Flora Preservation Society and many community members, Council has unanimously adopted the latest version of the Plan of Management for Boronia Park. The new plan allows for:

car parking inside the park in Princes Street
sporting clubs to open and close the gate to Princes St
construction of a sporting clubhouse within the park, described as a “community facility”
lighting on Oval 3.

Source: howwedrive.com

The changes favour selected sporting groups at the expense of:

the ordinary users of the park
other sporting groups that are currently excluded from Boronia park
the environmental requirements of this bushland.

Read Alister Sharp’s address to Council.

admin2016-01-21T21:39:35+11:00December 8, 2015|

Seasons greetings

HHT President Tony Coote, Christmas party at Waiwera

Great conversations

great setting

great hosts

great group of members

great food

great speeches

great teamwork

…. what more could we ask for?

(apart from great local planning maybe)

admin2015-12-10T14:57:17+11:00December 7, 2015|

Greater Sydney Commission

Cabinet has approved the appointment of

Lucy Turnbull as Chief Commissioner
Heather Nesbitt as Social Commissioner
Rod Simpson as Environment Commissioner
Geoff Roberts as Economic Commissioner.

6 District Commissioners nominated by Councils will be appointed for each of Sydney’s six planning districts. Find out more online.

Hunters Hill is part of the North Subregion: Priorities for North Subregion

admin2017-09-03T11:45:26+10:00December 6, 2015|

Planning disaster unfolding

Illustration by Katie Scott

In a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on December 2, Jennifer Crone of Bondi described the nightmare of six days a week building happening opposite her apartment. She is faced with the prospect of 60 trucks a day emitting diesel exhaust fumes and intense noise into her apartment from breakfast to dusk for the anticipated 2 year build.

She noted the extreme stress this will cause particularly to people with very young children, shift workers and the elderly and canvassed the possibility of developers paying for the temporary resettlement of those affected.

I wrote in response that I understood her pain because my own street, Bonnefin Road, has been a building site for the last six years. But at least it is relatively temporary.

That’s not the case for the people living in all those new apartments that continue to sprout up and down both sides of Sydney’s busiest roads. All day every day they have to suffer extreme levels of traffic noise and air pollution from the ever increasing numbers of vehicles roaring up and down outside their windows.

Reports commissioned by The NSW Department of Planning, which is responsible for this situation, show that exposure to these levels of pollution and noise is bad for your physical and mental health, impacts on your children’s learning ability and takes years off your life expectancy.

In aiding and abetting the continuation of this planning disaster they are acting like that infamous asbestos denier James Hardie.

admin2017-09-03T11:45:39+10:00December 2, 2015|

Candidates’ positions on forced Council amalgamations

click to enlarge

Voters in the Federal seat of North Sydney head off to the polling booths on December 5th.

All the candidates say that they are opposed to forced Council amalgamations – E X C E P T for the candidates from the Liberal Party and Australian Cyclists.

admin2015-12-10T14:55:47+11:00December 1, 2015|

Why does the heritage listing of 10 Cowell Street exclude the land around it?

Cowell Street cottage

10 years after the Paul Davies report recommended heritage listing of 10 Cowell Street, the house has been listed but we are astounded to see that the land around it has been excluded.

The Trust and other community members have urged Council to list 10 Cowell Street, not just as a heritage item, but with its curtilage, as a way of mitigating the impact of the development of the Gladesville Shopping Village site.

The most recent scheme for the GSV site includes 4 massive towers. Tower B would be 64m above Flagstaff Street (see below).

Heights of proposed GSV in red. Heights allowed by LEP in green

The business of the listing of 10 Cowell Street raises a number of doubts.

Council appears to have prevaricated on the listing and has failed to articulate its reasons for doing so.

The exclusion of the curtilage wasn’t passed as a resolution by Councillors, rather this wording was added later.

It appears that the main driver of Council’s dealings with the developers has been to maximise the sale price of Council owned public land, rather than to preserve Hunters Hill’s heritage and ensure the best possible development of the shopping area for the community.

The financial imperative to maximise the sale price of the property has never, as far as we can see, been publicly argued by Council. Instead, Council appears to have been at pains to gloss over the issue and to keep its dealings with the developers secret (presumably with the excuse that such dealings are commercial in confidence).

The wording of the Schedule 5 listing now appears to leave the cottage at 10 Cowell St open to being removed and erected somewhere else as some sort of salve to those who wish to retain it. We have always argued for the retention of the cottage in situ surrounded by its curtilage.

admin2017-09-03T11:45:59+10:00November 25, 2015|

Seeking new options for the Priory

The Priory, 1857 (image Sardaka)

The Expression of Interest (EOI) process between Hunter’s Hill Council and Tranter Vass Pty Ltd for the re-use of The Priory has expired with no result.

Council has been meeting with ‘new’ potential lessees over recent weeks and is seeking EOIs from interested organisations or individuals to adaptively reuse the Priory.

Potential uses could include commercial operations, such as office accommodation, cultural/arts/exhibition organisations, education based organisations, conference venue and restaurant.

The Priory is a State Heritage Listed item and is subject to a number of adaptive reuse constraints and will need to be vetted through Crown Lands, The NSW Office of Environment & Heritage and Hunter’s Hill Council.

Issues include:

retention of the setting of The Priory
retention of views to and from Riverglade Reserve and Tarban Creek
conservation of the significant fabric and spaces of The Priory and its outbuildings
interpretation of the phases of development and historical use of the site.

(more…)

admin2015-11-24T08:58:04+11:00November 23, 2015|

Which suburbs have the cleanest air?

A study by UTS shows that suburbs with dense tree canopies have lower concentrations of particulate matter in the air – cleaner air. Tree canopies help with disperse particulate pollution that is responsible for cancers and respiratory diseases, like asthma.

The total tree canopy cover across the City of Sydney local government area is about 15.5%, including 6.6% on private land, 4.9% from street trees and 4.1% in parkland.

Dr Fraser Torpy from UTS said “Grass didn’t have a positive impact on air quality at all: it is trees and canopy density that are the important factors in reducing air pollution and particulates.”

so why on earth do we do this in Hunters Hill? Image: Daily Telegraph

so why on earth do we do this?
Image: Barons Crescent, Daily Telegraph, 2015

some of what we have in Hunters Hill
Image: Lane Cove River and Lovetts Reserve

Read more about suburbs with the cleanest air.

admin2015-11-19T03:37:33+11:00November 18, 2015|

Local democracy rally

When: 12 noon Wednesday 18 November

Where: Martin Place, near Macquarie St.

Why: The Premier is saying ‘amalgamate or else’. The deadline for Councils to agree to merge is November 18.

Communities across NSW have voted not to amalgamate but the Government is ignoring the community. Many councils are saying no we won’t be bullied into selling out our community and amalgamating.

This Rally is standing up for local democracy and the rights of communities. It is supporting committed local community groups, hard-working Councillors, Mayors and all council staff across NSW. The Rally is supported by Save Our Councils Coalition, Local Government NSW and Unions NSW.

admin2015-11-18T22:11:18+11:00November 16, 2015|

Greater Sydney Commission bill passes upper house

The Labor Party has joined with the NSW Government, Christian Democrats and Shooters and Fishers Party to pass the Greater Sydney Commission bill. The Greens NSW strongly opposed it.

Community input into planning decisions has been rejected. Decisions of the new Commission will be binding on local government. Local Environment Plans will have to be amended in line with whatever the Commission decides.

Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Greens MP “highlighted the undemocratic and top down nature of the Greater Sydney Commission:

” (more…)

admin2017-09-03T11:51:30+10:00November 12, 2015|

Preserving Our Heritage since 1968

The Hunters Hill Trust

The Hunters Hill Trust

Preserving Our Heritage since 1968