Paper Subdivisions
More interesting material in the Draft Wollongong LEP 2009 that locals should be aware of so that they may like to comment to Council about includes maps that show what is known as Paper Subdivisions.
These are imaginary development areas that in the Helensburgh area are outside the residential footprints for allowable subdivisions. These imaginary subdivisions are located in the E2 – Environmental Conservation Area.
Now is the time for locals to urge Council to remove these and bring the area into the 21st century. Even the famous Bald Hill Lookout and Hang Gliding Area is one of these Paper Subdivisions.
Do we want to have the chance to lose our most famous landmark to developers who may one day have their way. Now is the time to protect it.
Other things locals may wish to comment on include returning the minimum residential block size to 550sqm. You can see all the town houses being built on the smaller 450sqm blocks. Some developers have even tried to get them built on 400sqm - which is not allowed.
Do we want outlandish 3-storey home units with courtyards in the centre without any fire brigade access as we have seen built? Make your feelings known on that.
As for the main entry to Helensburgh, do we really need any light industrial complexes rezoned from 7d or E2 land at this main entry?. Well this has happened, including one that was entirely burnt out and the then owner told it was reverting to 7d, so he had to move his business elsewhere. But somewhere along the line, a new business has started up including piles of wooden pallets in a high bushfire zone.
It is also interesting to see a lot of sheds suddenly going up without any Council development applications, even if it is supposed to be on an existing footprint.
As for the old RTA site, even there, there is supposed light industrial which has been operating on the 7d catchment area which has not been put on public exhibition for any change of use till now. Approved by the former council without public consultation.
So now the 6,000 or so residents of Helensburgh and district have the chance to have their say on how the area should be looked after.
It is all up to you to comment, to save the area from inappropriate development not only outside the local residential footprints, but also within.
How there can also be a separate review of 7d Hacking River Catchment land before the Helensburgh Town Concept Plan is also something that can be questioned by you.
You have until 13 March to send in your submission to addressed to:
The Administrators, Locked Bag 8821 Wollongong NSW 2500 or e-mail
Council@wollongong.nsw.gov.au
You can do your best to help keep our area unique because this will protect the wildlife corridors as well.
Alan Bond
Draft Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009
Elite was a word used by a 7d land owner speculator at the Neighbourhood Forum in February to describe people in Helensburgh and district who bought their properties where building a home in a residential area is allowed.
Elite? Elite? Who are these people? Who the hell do they think they are? If elite is a word to describe people who aren’t stupid enough to buy land where you can build instead of the hope that the zoning may change one day, then these speculators have no one to blame but themselves.
One person, a 7d land owner, stood her ground at the meeting, to make sure the representative from Council knew that not everyone supported the speculators’ view.
According to the Council rep, ALL 7d land is going over to the new E2 classification, Environmental Conservation. Any negotiation for any changes to 7d will be reviewed after this. Any change will be based on the majority view held by owners in any one given precinct, e.g. Otford, Helensburgh, Stanwell Tops, etc. It is known that many owners are quite happy for the E2 classification because they love the area they live in.
There’s nothing against people wanting to live in the area if they come through the front door, but trying to sneak in through the back does not make you welcome. If some of these people who have had their land for years, couldn’t be bothered to sell up where they live in Sydney and buy a residential block in Helensburgh, then you surely have no backbone in your loud mouth statements.
Have your say in the Draft Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 by confirming you want the E2 to remain.
For those who are not sure on how they could write such a submission, you could write the following:
The Administrators, Locked Bag 8821 Wollongong NSW 2500 or email Council@wollongong.nsw.gov.au
“RE: SUBMISSION ON DRAFT WOLLONGONG LEP 2009
Alan Bond
Support for E2 – Environmental conservation without changes
I am a resident/ratepayer who has lived adjacent (or on, whichever is applicable) to the current 7d Hacking River Catchment for … years.
The reason I bought my property was so I could live in the beautiful pristine area without having a great impact on it.
To me it is a privilege to live here.
I do not wish to see the future E2 zoning, changed that will alter the unique aspect of this wonderful, environmentally sensitive area.
Therefore please accept this submission as support for the E2 as designated in the Draft Wollongong LEP 2009.
I also do not support individually sought rezonings away from 7d or E2.
Yours sincerely”
Remember, in the Commission of Inquiry held in the ‘90s, any chance of residential expansion in the 7d areas was rejected, with the support of well over 5,000 objection submissions.
There are now more than 6,000 people who live in the area. Add your voice to keep our beautiful district, including the Australian National Heritage listed Royal National Park and Garrawarra State Conservation Area, protected.
Let any development be kept in the residential footprints, and not at the whim of land speculators who gambled and lost. But let them get a fair compensation if they can. Let us not lose the forest area that we respect.
You have until 13 March to send in your submission to keep our beautiful area the way it should always be.
Alan Bond
How dare Minister Kristina Keneally
How dare Minister Kristina Keneally try to explain her justification for ripping the NSW’s unique Illawarra escarpment - one of Australia’s natural treasures, millions of years in the making - apart, by the stroke of a pen.
It is described as a generic framework or footprint for future development by allowing Links Living to place almost 400 privately owned living quarters in the middle of it.
She has tried to justify the need for this place by pointing the finger straight at the Rural Fire Service, saying that the only way they would approve it is if further requirements were added to ensure bushfire risks could be appropriately managed.
Appropriately managed! Two words, that if anyone saw what happened tragically in Victoria, seemed to be understood by everyone, except the fire itself.
How can you manage burning embers blown by extreme updrafts created by fires. Fires that can travel 20km in four minutes as shown in Victoria. How do you appropriately manage that, Minister Keneally? There’s no way you justify this by referring to rules.
Wollongong City Council wisely rightly rejected this proposal.
Suddenly it became over $100m to be taken on by the State Government as 3A.
But this is a concept plan which Links Living have already admitted is now a 20-year plan. So as they go through seeing how they can save money, suddenly some of the more outlandish components like a new water pipe from Woronora Dam to Helensburgh, then to the resort, will be dropped.
Why? Because if it was built they would have to hand it over to the State Government, a little publicised fact. Would any business spend money to do that? So therefore, that and other outlandish ideas, start the drop to below the 3A requirements.
Hopefully at the next state election when Labor gets tossed out big time, we will have a better government with a more realistic approach. A government which will not be told by developers what to do, but tell the developers what they must do, not only in the interest of the public, but to protect this unique wonderful home we call Australia.
Oh, and by the way, a copy of this letter will go to the Minister, and the reply will be that my comments have been "noted". Whatever the hell that means!
Alan Bond Your Opinion Counts. Have your say in this column next week. Click here >>>>>> | 
