Councillor Chris Harris cites UNSW for 'poor form'

From City of Sydney Councillor, Chris Harris...

Residents furious at CoFA backflip April 19th, 2010

It seemed like the battle of the CoFA development was over but the University of NSW has turned its back on the community once again. In my previous post on this topic I discussed how City of Sydney Council had reached a compromise agreement between Paddington residents and the University about the streets trucks would use during the contruction and when they would use them. What seemed like a victory for local residents and for good faith negotiations was, however, sadly short lived.

Much to the anger of the local community UNSW have now decided that they are unhappy with the agreed traffic management plan and are applying to the Department of Planning to have Council stripped of it’s power to make traffic management decisions about the site. This is poor form on the part of UNSW but also serves to highlight the broader issue of the pro-developer bias in the NSW planning system.

The notorious Part 3A powers of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, enacted by state parliament in 2005 when both the Labor and Liberal parties voted in favour of them, allow the planning Minister to usurp a Council’s powers to approve developments. The effect of Part 3A is that developments that are totally opposed by the communities most affected by them have a much greater chance of getting approved - especially if the proponent of the development is a donor to one of the major political parties.

I will be doing all I can to make sure the Department of Planning does not overturn the months of negotiations that went into developing the current traffic management plan. But this is only one battle in the ongoing war that my Greens collegues in state parliment have been fighting for many years against a highly flawed and unbalanced planning system.

COFA + UNSW indifferent to students and a bully says MP

NSW Parliament, 21 April 2010

Ms SYLVIA HALE [9.24 p.m.]: 
"Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act is notorious. It allows the Minister for Planning to usurp a council's powers to determine developments in a council's area if the Minister decrees that the project is a major development or a development of State significance. Part 3A has allowed the Government to ruthlessly approve development applications that are totally opposed by the communities most affected by them. Needless to say, the chances of obtaining approval are infinitely greater if the applicant is a donor to the Australian Labor Party.

"The following are two examples of how part 3A is being used to ride roughshod over community concerns, environmental issues and the fundamentals of any democratic process. The first is the redevelopment of the College of Fine Arts site in Paddington by the University of New South Wales. No-one denies that existing conditions for staff and students are intolerable and that the site needs to be redeveloped. What is unacceptable, however, is the approval process. One of the main concerns voiced by local residents is that construction will take more than two years to complete.

COFA/UNSW want 27 months of residential trucks

What the earlier post below (Lord Mayor on UNSW and potential delays for COFA development) means –
COFA and UNSW want to ignore the Council's March 2010 compromise traffic plan and have asked the NSW Department of Planning to do, what will effectively, reverse the Statement of Commitments that underpinned the 2008 Development Approval.

Put simply, COFA and UNSW want their trucks using residential streets for the complete 27 months – Josephson Street, Selwyn Street, Albion Avenue and Napier Streets. This is all three residential sides of the campus!!

What can you do? Voice your opposition!!
We've made it simple.
Copy between the dotted lines (below), then click HERE to email all the NSW State people, and paste your objection.
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I strongly object to:
1. The removal of the City Council’s approval powers
2. The use of residential streets for truck access for the full 27 months

And would like to point out:
3. The delays in starting are completely under COFA/UNSW’s control
4. That COFA/UNSW shown a lack of transparency in community consultations and are misrepresenting the facts.
5. The Council brokered compromise from March 2010 was deemed reasonable by the community, even though it had significant impact on Napier St residents and allowed truck access for light strip-out
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Do it as quickly as possible as the decision is due very soon (perhaps even tomorrow!).

What else can you do? Get everyone in the house to send a separate email so that the NSW Government people are inundated.
Once you've done that – you can also become a follower – the more people the better – by going over to the right hand side of the webpage and clicking "Follow". You can also click on "Tweet this" if you're a Twitterer, or the Facebook Icon if you're a Facebooker.

Lord Mayor on UNSW and potential delays for COFA development

The redevelopment of the UNSW Sydney College of Fine Arts (CoFA) is under threat, with the State Government expected to remove the community from the planning process and re-examine already approved construction traffic conditions for the site under Part 3A planning powers.

The Department of Planning is looking to remove Council's Construction Traffic Plan approval for the site's redevelopment in Paddington. This action to remove the City's approval powers for CoFA will unnecessarily hold up progress on this important site and create significant local unrest. The City of Sydney must remain the approval authority for CoFA.

The Council's approved Plan provides a solution to enable CoFA's redevelopment while minimising impacts on local residents and businesses. I am concerned that if the Department of Planning reviews the approved Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP) it will seriously impact on CoFA's tight time frames and potentially jeopardise its stimulus funding.

The Council Plan allows construction traffic to use the Council owned Napier Street road closure adjacent to CoFA, to minimise traffic impacts on nearby residential streets. Residents who previously were originally strongly and actively opposed to CoFA's redevelopment had told me they were satisfied with Council's traffic plan and would now support the redevelopment.

If the Department takes control and recommends changes from Council's approved Plan, local residents are likely to have significant concerns and lose confidence in CoFA's redevelopment process. The redevelopment works are essential for CoFA's continuing success and will provide vital facilities for students and the broader community.

If the development is reviewed the Department will also look at a number of other approvals required for CoFA's redevelopment including the Community Liaison Committee Terms of Reference.