Member for Davidson, Jonathan O’Dea held a meeting with Ku-ring-gai community group representatives this week.
The meeting was at Mr O’Dea’s electorate office in advance of the Planning Panel’s meeting in April to finalise the Town Centre draft plans. Once finalised, the plans will then be considered for gazettal by the Planning Minister.
Mr O’Dea said that the State Government-appointed Planning Panel must take into account the views expressed by the community in more than 1,800 objections lodged to the draft Town Centre proposals.
“It is clear from the submissions and numerous public meetings – many of which I have attended – that the community has enormous concerns,” Mr O’Dea said.
“I again call on the Planning Panel and the Government to honour the agreed target of 10,000 new dwellings by 2031 under NSW’s Metropolitan Planning Strategy.
“There is clear evidence this figure might be exceeded by at least 40%, or four thousand extra dwellings.
“The community is waiting anxiously for the Planning Panel to announce the extent to which the Town Centre plans have been scaled back,” Mr O’Dea said.
“Ku-ring-gai should not be forced to accept more dwellings than those agreed to under the Metropolitan Planning Strategy. We have already seen the substantial impact of recent development on the environment, heritage value and lifestyle of the Ku-ring-gai area,” Mr O’Dea said.
“If the Panel and Government does not respond appropriately, then there will be further strong community campaigning against the Planning Minister and NSW Labor Government,” Mr O’Dea concluded.
