Village Vs supermarket

Inadequate community consultation by Ku-ring-gai council has again led to bad planning, this time for Turramurra Town Centre, says Turramurra Uniting Church.

The car park in question, facing Turramurra Uniting Church

A Planning Committee meeting on 25 October revealed the Recommended Planning Option for Turramurra involves replacing the public car park adjacent to Turramurra Uniting Church with a major supermarket. A copy of the presentation made to the Planning Committee is also available on the council website.

The presence of a major supermarket in such close proximity to the Church would "seriously prejudice the work done by the Church," says the spokesperson for Turramurra Uniting Church, Stan Wesley.

"The Church is not adopting an attitude of criticising the council. We want to work with the council to improve the facilities in the area but we don't want the council's approach to damage the work of the church in providing services to the community."

If the recommended option goes ahead the Church will lose unfettered access to the public car park and suffer an array of other negative impacts they say. Thirty-seven community organisations and special interest groups, such as the local Alzheimers Support Group and Meals on Wheels — who meet in the Church's buildings — will also be affected by the proposed changes.

Wesley says the absence of any mention of the community facilities provided by Turramurra Uniting Church indicates "a total lack of awareness by the council of the services provided by the church to the general community."

The Church says the proposed supermarket would cause vehicle congestion and an unacceptable level of noise pollution. They believe additional traffic congestion would also be caused by the five-storey unit developments planned for Gilroy Road and Turramurra Avenue as these streets would be permanently parked-out with residential cars.

Wesley says there was no formal consultation with Officers of the Church when the Recommended Option was being prepared and finalised by the Council's Planning staff.

"We only picked up on the issue through word of mouth in the community. What we thought was a low-key issue in actuality has huge significance for the Church," says Wesley.

In conjunction with a traffic engineer, Turramurra Uniting Church is now working feverishly to put a submission to Ku-ring-gai council outlining their objections to the Recommended Planning Option for Turramurra Town Centre.

In place of the supermarket in the Ray Street precinct, council planning staff have recommended a new multi-story leisure centre.

"This concept of the Leisure Centre as including aquatic facilities was never one of the options discussed with local residents in the consultation process," says Roman Koziol, a Turramurra resident who was present at the Planning Committee meeting. "How can the council say they're genuinely collaborating with the community when they throw up things like this?"

A spokesperson for Ku-ring-gai council said the Recommended Planning Option for Turramurra was "in its very early stages. The issue will be put forward for full debate at the Council meeting on 6 December and there will be an opportunity for all stakeholders to make formal submissions."

However, Wesley and other local activists say that by that stage it will be too late. They feel the only real window of opportunity to change the plan is between now and the council meeting on 6 December.

"By the time the proposal becomes a draft Local Environment Plan (LEP) and goes on public exhibition it is highly unlikely anything but small amendments can be made to the plan," says Koziol, "Look at what happened to St Ives."