Residents tell FOKE . . .

At FOKE’s Stall at the Gordon Markets, on 10 November 2024, this is what residents told FOKE:

TOD Nightmare

  • Why is the NSW Government ruining Sydney?
  • The NSW Government is unleashing a “TOD nightmare” on not only Ku-ring-gai but other suburbs across Sydney.
  • Nothing should be put on public exhibition until AFTER Ku-ring-gai Council’s LEGAL ACTION against the NSW Government’s Transport Oriented Development is RESOLVED.
  • You can’t ‘high rise retrofit’ a garden suburb like Ku-ring-gai without massive environmental destruction.
  • People choose to live in Ku-ring-gai because of its trees and now the NSW Government is telling residents they will destroy its trees.
  • Wildlife cannot survive this level of urban densification that the NSW Government is unleashing on Ku-ring-gai.

Overwhelm Infrastructure

  • The population increase of 23,000 TOD dwellings (23 000 x 2.5 people = 57,500 additional people + low to mid rise population increases + dual occupancy population increases is too great and will overwhelm Lu-ring-gai’s livability, infrastructure and environmental constraints.
  • The sewer system will not be able to cope with the increased population.
  • Many Ku-ring-gai schools are already at overcapacity. Does this mean the new normal will be overcrowded ‘vertical’ high rise schools?
  • How will hospitals cope with the extra population when their services are already overstretched?
  • Where is the audit of the additional commuter street parking spaces needed for the 23,000 additional dwellings?
  • Immigration numbers are driving the housing supply shortage and need to be returned to sustainable levels.

Building an ‘Opal Tower’ Future

  • The high rise proposals for Ku-ring-gai will create more ‘Opal Towers‘? ‘Concrete cancer’; lifts that only last around 25 years; power failures that trap residents with no lifts and no air conditioning; flash flooding in underground car parks
  • How will people be able to afford the strata levies that people will be forced to pay to live in apartment blocks?

Entrench Unaffordability

  • The developer led NSW Government’s Housing reforms will NOT create affordable housing.


Developers Gain. Residents Loss.

  • Developers win super profits from TOD rezoning uplift.
  • Residents lose their homes, liveability, amenity, heritage, environment and neighbourhood character.

Nature Led Planning Needed

  • Sydney needs ‘No Go Zones’ where environmentally sensitive areas, including Ku-ring-gai, are permanently protected.