The future: concrete trees

Most residents in St Ives, Turramurra, Gordon, Pymble, Roseville and Lindfield don't realise that their town centres are about to undergo significant transformation.

Ku-ring-gai Council’s impression of St Ives, post-reconstruction

In a letter dated May 27 2004, the Minister Assisting the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Diane Beamer asked Ku-ring-gai Council to prepare plans for extra housing options in and around main commercial centres. She delivered two directives.

Firstly, to rezone land to facilitate the development of multi-unit housing and increase housing choice particularly in the form of "shop-top" housing. Secondly, to improve the development standards so as to encourage redevelopment of land in the existing multi-unit housing zones. These developments must be consistent with the standards outlined in Local Environment Plan 194. In other words, up to 5 stories high.

Little do residents of Ku-ring-gai seem to realise that their town centres are about to undergo significant transformation. St Ives, Turramurra, Gordon, Pymble, Roseville and Lindfield — in that order — have been earmarked for development.

Cr Elaine Malicki says she believes Ku-ring-gai is being treated worse than any other council. She explains much of the difficulty as stemming from the demands being placed on council. "We are being asked to plan for major redevelopment of St Ives and Turramurra in just nine months, and to plan four other centres within a little more than a year. In terms of major planning it is asking too much in too short a time, and public consultation will suffer."

How far and how extensive the State Government requires the development of the town centres is unclear. Beyond the minister's directives, no set of written criteria by which DIPNR (Department of Infrastructure, Planning & Natural Resources) would approve council's residential strategy exists.

Ku-ring-gai Council appears to have taken the directives with gusto and is using them as an opportunity to "maximise the benefits to the community of redevelopment."

Malicki says, "We don't have to fill the whole centre with new development. Residents need to have a say in how much change they want, and so far residents have indicated they don't want much change. As councillors we should be looking at implementing the minimum amount."

"The only thing we cannot stop is shop-top housing — the minister has directed us to do that. But the leisure centres, community facilities and masses of extra retail are things that the council itself is pushing and these are the things we don't have to do," she says.

Ku-ring-gai Council says its has engaged in comprehensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders regarding the development. Its says its approach has been holistic, examining issues such as parking and traffic, community facilities, commercial viability and the general 'liveability' of each centre.

There's little dispute about the level of community consultation council has undertaken. Common critics of council have applauded the level of consultation, but a significant amount of community discontent is now brewing over the way the consultation has been handled.

"Although the consultation process has been extensive, it has not been genuine," says President of St Ives Progress Association Christiane Berlioz.

"There's a lot of absolutely excellent consultation work being done but we need to change the focus of our questions. We need to be completely honest with the community and give them every detail, even the unpalatable ones. The residents are not getting the big picture," says Malicki.

Malicki is not alone in this opinion. The development of their town centres is an issue that has caught the attention of more than the usual suspects of council commentators. Residents who have never participated in council matters before have been spurred into action. One such example is Turramurra resident Roman Koziol who says, "I'm not anti-council. I'm just against the way they're doing things."

Koziol says he found the consultation experience a frustrating one, "I didn't like the way the survey questions were couched. It was very difficult to answer 'no' to any of them. There was a covert attempt to illicit positive responses."

So while people were asked how they would like to sip coffee overlooking the Village Green, questions failed to cover the kind of development that would make such metropolitan living possible.

Former Mayor Laura Bennett says she thinks council is, "trying to manage public opinion. The disadvantages of what residents are going to get have never been discussed."

Council denies this and says, "All information circulated to the community has made it clear that development in the town centre is under a ministerial direction and is expected to be 4 to 6 stories."

Malicki says, "I've been to 3 of the consultation meetings for Turramurra. They've been extremely general. Questions were asked about the things people like and dislike about the centre, but not about how much extra retail people want, or if they want a 5,000sqm leisure centre, or if they want to lose all the shops on one side of the highway or to double the size of the library. And most of the residents still have no idea we are looking at 4 to 6 storey buildings everywhere."

Furthermore, there appears to be very little correlation between what residents have indicated they want and what they are likely to get. 1800 St Ives residents surveyed (the combination of those who Agreed and Strongly Agreed) out of a possible 2200 said current medium density development in St Ives was sufficient. Only 110 (those who Disagreed and Disagreed Strongly) felt it was insufficient.

To a certain extent, council's hands are tied. They have been handed an unpalatable task by the State Government and are now in a position where they have to sell a plan to the community they've already indicated they don't want.

But how extensive that development is will be entirely up to council. Another feature of council's vision for St Ives includes expanding its leisure facilities but only 170 respondents said they were dissatisfied with current leisure facilities available in St Ives. So what then is the impetus for more facilities?

Council has also indicated their desire to reclassify car parks at the interface of St Ives shopping centre and the Village Green, currently considered 'community land' to 'operational land'. They say the reclassification will "provide for more flexible use in the future consistent with plans for the town centre."

What this essentially means is that council will have the option of selling the land in the future. "Council is taking certain steps which indicate the possible disposal of community land without giving the community any justification as to why or studying alternatives,"  says Berlioz, "Why do we need all this money? What is St Ives financing? Is St Ives going to be a cash cow for Ku-ring-gai?"

Bennett agrees. "Car parks everywhere are at risk. A lid is being kept on this because legally they can't be sold if residents object."

No one is under the illusion that some kind of development won't go ahead. Koziol says, "We can't stop change occurring but it's got to be consistent and in harmony with the rest of Ku-ring-gai - the qualities that brought us here and that keep us here."

Council only put information on their website regarding stage two of the residential strategy, titled "Planning our town centres", on July 21, despite the process going on for the past 15 months.

In terms of a timeline, finalisation of development plans for St Ives and Turramurra is set aside for the end of September;  Gordon by December; Pymble by March 2006 and Roseville and Lindfield by June 2006.

Community awareness about the town centres decreases in corresponding order of the planned development. For example, Cr Malicki says, "I wanted conveyed to Turramurra residents that the minister had directed us to have shop-top housing to a height of five storeys. That is what was meant to go out in the original letter that still hasn't been sent."

Ku-ring-gai Council says, "An extensive publicity strategy has begun and includes newsletters, updates on our website, workshops, exhibition displays (at shopping centres, libraries, etc), newspaper articles and press releases."

The proposed plan for St Ives will go on exhibition for two weeks in the near future.

Bennett says, "It's absolutely not too late in St Ives. At the very least people should sign petitions."

"Residents should realise there is such a thing as people power. If sufficient people are informed and demand council be accountable for their decisions, then we can still change things," says Berlioz.

In 6 months time when local residents begin to see drastic changes to their town centres, the plan will be lock and load, it will be too late to effect any change. Now is the time for residents to engage genuinely with local government and in turn the state government.