Category: Latest news

Information Forums on the FIVE Scenarios

Ku-ring-gai Council is presenting information forums on five Transport Oriented Development (TOD) rezoning scenario proposals around Roseville, Lindfield, Killara and Gordon stations.

#Five Scenarios on Public Exhibition #housing crisis #Ku-ring-gai #Ku-ring-gai Council #Ku-ring-gai Council’s alternative TOD housing scenarios #Ku-ring-gai Environment #Ku-ring-gai Heritage. #Ku-ring-gai Overdevelopment #Ku-ring-gai Planning #Ku-ring-gai Urban Forest #NSW Housing Policy #TOD

Sign onto FOKE E-News

Stay in touch with issues affecting Ku-ring-gai’s natural and built heritage.

#FOKE #FOKE - fighting to save Ku-ring-gai #Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment #Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environnent (FOKE) #Join FOKE #Latest Ku-ring-gai News

Sydney needs Ku-ring-gai’s cool trees

Australia’s two largest capital cities have far too little tree canopy, which increases the cities’ heat island effects and leads to increased rates of obesity, depression, anxiety and heatstroke.

# obesity and heatstroke are more prevalent in urban areas lacking access to shady tree canopy and green open spaces #Cities need the cool of trees #Dr Thami Croeser said governments should work to urgently improve canopy shade to cool cities #Ku-ring-gai Tree Canopy #Lack of trees leads to obesity #Minns hates Ku-ring-gai's trees #Minns hates trees #Minns wants to heat up Ku-ring-gai #No trees means more mental health problems #No trees more anxiety #Sweltering Sydney #Sweltering Sydney because Minns is determined to cut down Sydney's urban forest #Sydney needs more tree canopy but is prepared to destroy Ku-ring-gai's tree canopy #Sydney needs more tree canopy yet housing reforms will deforest Sydney #Without Ku-ring-gai's trees more heat island effects depression

Councils sidelined

Property developers will be able to propose their own spot rezoning and planning controls for large developments, bypassing local councils

#Council' further sidelined #Developers delighted with Minns #Gang of 3 dictates planninbg #Gang of 3 give largess to developers #housing crisis #Ku-ring-gai #Ku-ring-gai Council #Ku-ring-gai Environment #Ku-ring-gai Heritage. #Ku-ring-gai Overdevelopment #Ku-ring-gai Planning #Ku-ring-gai Urban Forest #Minns Gang of 3 - Draper #Minns gang of three #Minns happy for developers to do spot rezoning #Minns legacy - HDA #Minns thinks HDA is the way to go #NSW abandons good planning #NSW Planning state captured by developers #Phillip Ruddock questions HDA #Simon Draper heads HDA #TOD Better Planning Network Kiersten Fishburn & Tom Gellibrand head up HDA

The Victorian government says Melbourne by 2050 will be home to nearly 8 million people and as part of a plan to future prove this city it wants to introduce swathes of new housing stock to make it easier for people to buy at home, but critics of the scheme say it threatens Melbourne’s’ reputation as one of the world’s most livable cities.

#Albanese is driving planning crisis #Condemning people to live in hot boxes #Destroy most of Melbourne #Destroy most of Sydney #fast track planning #High rise on steroids #High rise the new norm #housing crisis #Jacinta Allen and Chris Minns have agenda to destroy Melbourne and Sydney #Ku-ring-gai #Ku-ring-gai Council #Ku-ring-gai Environment #Ku-ring-gai Heritage. #Ku-ring-gai Overdevelopment #Ku-ring-gai Planning #Ku-ring-gai Urban Forest #Local democracy under threat #Melbournians revolt over TODs #Michael Buxton #Minns is destroying Sydney's garden suburbs #Minns needs to be sacked #Minns pushing growth propaganda #Minns will entrench housing unaffordability #Monica Ryan MP Kooyong #NSW Housing Policy #One size fails all #Planning dictatorship #Population growth is driving housing crisis #residential towers destroying Australian way of life #Suburban skyscrapers #Sustainable living #The hungry giant is never satisfied #TOD #Undemocratic planning #Victorian Housing Reforms #Victorian TODs #Why would you destroy Sydney and Melbourne

Portfolio 7 thanks FOKE

Sue Higginson, Chair of the Legislative Council’s Portfolio Committee No. 7 – Planning and Environment, has announced the release of its report – ‘Planning system and the impacts of climate change on the environment and communities’.

#Ku-ring-gai #Ku-ring-gai Council #Ku-ring-gai Environment #Ku-ring-gai Planning #Ku-ring-gai Urban Forest #Legislative Council’s Portfolio Committee No. 7 – Planning and Environment #NSW Housing Policy #Planning system and the impacts of climate change on the environment and communities Report #Portfolio 7 thanks FOKE #TOD

Local Govt rejects Minns new planning body

Delegates at the Local Government NSW Annual Conference have condemned a move by the State Government to establish a new planning body to bypass local government on large housing developments.

#Local Government Association call on Minns to abandon plans for undemocratic new planning body #Local Government rejects Minns new Planning body #New planning body to bypass local government on large housing developments #NSW Housing Policy #NSW Housing reforms #NSW Local Government NSW Annual Conference condemn Minns new planning body #NSW Planning #Premier Chris Minns announced a three-person planning authority #Premier Minns Gang of Three Planning Authority #Premier Minns overrides local government controls #Premier Minns says new planning body will come into effect in early 2025 f

Close St Ives Shopping Village Roads?

Write to your Councilllors asking what the public benefit in closing and divesting the St Ives Shopping Village roads BEFORE 26 NOV 2024

#E K Nominees Pty Ltd #Proposed redevelopment of St Ives Shopping Village involving adjoining Council land and road reserve #Proposed redevelopment of St Ives Village #St Ives #St Ives Shopping Village #St Ives Shopping Village future #St Ives Shopping Village wants road closures #St Ives Village and Ku-ring-gai Council

FOKE meets with Mayor 11.11.24

FOKE met with Mayor Cr Christine Kay (St Ives Ward) on Monday 11 November 2024.

#FOKE meets with Ku-ring-gai Mayor #FOKE meets with Mayor #Ku-ring-gai Mayor #Mayor Christine Kay

Minns BRADFIELD Oration

Premier Chris Minns has announced that he will allow developers to bypass council approvals and to seek spot rezoning, in order to speed up approval and delivery times.

##Minns announces developers to bypass Council approvals #Minns Bradfield Oration 15.11.24 #NSW Housing Policy #NSW Planning Reforms #The Daily Telegraph's Bradfield Oration

Minister Stokes, a pandemic inspired opportunity for a better NSW!

NSW Planning is going forward with plans for high rise and high density in Sydney when all the facts suggest that the Covid-19 epidemic has changed the way people will live and work in Sydney.

Will this be our last pandemic? Most likely not. This one may take years to get fully under some sort of control or it may rear its ugly head again and again. With increasing globalisation and increasing global populations, more pandemics are a probability, not a possibility. There have been warnings ‘spanning multiple decades’ of such an event. (ABC Science, The next pandemic is coming – and sooner than we think 7/6/2020)

The facts of this pandemic highlight the importance of social distancing and self-isolation in reducing its severity and reducing the death toll. Essential to this is avoiding congested areas, whether in residences or employment locations, such as elevators, communal areas, and enclosed spaces such as public transport. Also essential is the need for fresh air, filtration from trees and separation.

High density buildings have characteristics that make social distancing virtually impossible. For example, New York has experienced a disproportionately higher infection rate due to its very high density residential and employment situation.

If NSW planning continues to pursue a high rise and high density strategy, it is abrogating its duty of care in building a healthy city for its citizens. One of the reasons that Australia has been able to manage the pandemic so well so far, is that our housing is still dominated by detached or low rise dwellings, and low-mid rise apartment buildings.

We have experienced a move to a more mobile workforce in just 3 months than we could have thought possible. The remote working model was anticipated to take many years to be embraced by businesses and employees alike. However this has now been tested and proven successful across a range of knowledge based industries. Employees determining that it is workable, and companies seeing the benefits of lower ongoing occupancy costs in the city.

Added to this is the report published in June on ‘Population Mobility in Australia from 2011 to 2016’ by the Regional Australian Institute, which shows that for Sydney nearly 65,000 more people moved to the regions than came to Sydney. And significantly, more millennials, 20 to 35 year olds, are leaving Sydney for the regions than the other way around. One can only expect that this trend will strengthen with remote working opportunities increasingly more commonplace across NSW.

It is becoming clear that the Covid-19 impact will last for more than 2 years, with consequent high unemployment and minimal immigration. The current models based on earlier assumptions of high population growth over the next 5 years are no longer valid. There would be few businesses that would apply a pre-Covid business strategy as the basis of their future plans. Neither should NSW Planning!

What should NSW Planning do to develop a healthy environment for its citizens?

Truly embrace decentralisation with more schools, high-quality health facilities and water security in the regions
Build schools and infrastructure to support the current population in outer Sydney.
Immediately put a moratorium on high rise developments and assess the redeployment of released corporate space.
Ensure the proposed green open space corridor guidelines are mandatory and not optional