Sutherland Shire Local Environmental Plan
| About this Item |
Subjects | Sutherland Shire Council; Planning and Development |
Speakers | Kerr Mr Malcolm |
Business | Private Members Statements |
Page: 613
Mr KERR (Cronulla) [1.12 p.m.]: Sutherland shire has a great proportion of home owners, certainly in the electorate of Cronulla. Those home owners are being affected and threatened by a local environmental plan of the Sutherland Shire Council. It is interesting to go into the history of this plan. It was commenced by then shire mayor, Tracie Sonda, who is a member of Shire Watch, a left-wing political party. It should have been introduced all at one time, but like one of those Soviet-style plans that you might recall, Mr Acting-Speaker, what was meant to take one year in fact took more three years. I understand it has consumed more than $2 million of ratepayers' money.
One thing that Sutherland Shire Council did properly was to engage a consultant—I think it was John Woodward—who I think was a Labor mayor at one stage. Mr Woodward, a quite competent individual, presented to council a report that should be made public. I believe he would have liked issues papers to commence the process, instead of the meaningless surveys that the council undertook, which resulted in findings that everybody should be in favour of motherhood. The local environmental plan is set out in a document that is so voluminous that people have difficulty establishing the precise impact of the plan on a particular piece of land or form of development. Those who approach the council and get a CD-ROM will find that it is user unfriendly. The effect is to make life very difficult for council staff and applicants.
I urge all residents of the Sutherland shire, but particularly those in my electorate, to look at that local environmental plan and discuss it with the council. Those who do so will find that it will result in decreases in property values. Many people who buy a house to develop for their children will be shocked when they look at the details of the plan, because the devil is in the detail. The floor space ratio has been changed dramatically, reducing from 40 per cent to 25 per cent on large blocks, and landscaping has been increased to 60 per cent. Equally shocking is that landscaping components do not include pools, paved areas or driveways. As such, in effect the landscaping requirements could be pushed to 80 per cent of the land.
Buildings are to be limited in height. If there is a complaint from someone, despite the fact that the proposed plan may otherwise comply completely with all height and foreshore requirements, applicants could still face the prospect that their applications could be refused. This is a major blow to property owners in the Sutherland shire. Even more extraordinary is that this document does not address design, nor does it make any real suggestions in relation to transport. One of the relevant consequences of development, particularly development that has occurred in the last four years in the shire, has been its impact on traffic and parking. That is a matter that has not been addressed in this plan. Despite the expenditure of more than $2 million, the document will substantially hit any home owners who want to leave their homes to their children. In addition to that, many homes that have been built do not comply with the requirements of this local environmental plan. In fact, buildings that have gone up over the past 10 to 20 years could be in breach of the plan's requirements. That means that any renovations that affect their size are not permitted. [Time expired.]