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Hi all
Well 2001 has been a big year for many in the Illawarra with hugely controversial debates on many development issues, especially in the northern suburbs of Wollongong, not to mention the awful bushfires over Christmas-New Year that still continue.
Judy Bourke, the artist, in a recent request, has also sent me the following quote which I really like ...
'In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity'
Albert Einstein
.... and so here is something for everyone who has been hard at work on community action campaigns or trying to do something positive for their area ... a victory from the past to give inspiration for the coming year
In 1967 Norman King wrote a short book on the History of Austinmer, which describes one of the earliest resident environmental action campaigns in the northern suburbs of Wollongong ... it is a story that I have shared with people over the last 15 years, & most recently with Professor Bruce Thom, Chairman of the NSW Coastal Council ... it never fails to fill me with encouragement ....
quoting from the book ...
The Progress Association
It took the people of Austinmer seven years after the sale of the land that brought it into prominence as a seaside and health resort to realise that the seafront was in jeopardy of being lost, as the land between the South Coast Road and the high water mark of the beach was held by private owners and could have been sold for building purposes.
Subdivisions were held in 1910, 1913, and 1914, contiguous to the beach, by the company, and, no doubt, it was quite prepared to dispose of this land also. Had this happened Austinmer would have had houses where the promenade and the parking area now exist.
Fortunately, it was recognised by some of the residents that this could happen, especially as land was being eagerly sought by visitors for holiday purposes.
A meeting was called for Saturday, 3rd January 1914, and was held on the beach. Judge F.S. Boyce was elected to the chair and declared the meeting open. Archdeacon Havilland moved and Mr G Cram seconded, "That the residents and ratepayers of Austinmer request the Bulli Shire Council to secure, by resumption, as a site for a park and promenade the strip of land facing the foreshores of Austinmer and to levy a special rate on the 1914 valuation upon the local rateable property for the said purpose."
Discussion arose and the meeting was adjourned for discussion to the following Saturday at the same place at 8pm.
At this meeting attended by the President of the Bulli Shire, Mr J Kirton, and Councillor Cotterill, Mr P.N. Slade moved an amendment to the motion of Archdeacon Havilland, seconded by Mr J Young, "That a deputation be sent to Messrs. Allem & Allen, owners of the land, to make the best arrangements possible for resumption of the foreshores."
Councillor Kirton, G Wallace, J Young, PW Slade, JS Adam and the chairman FC Boyce were appointed as a deputation. ....
A letter from Allen & Allen submitted a subdivision plan of 1330 feet of beach land fronting the main road for one pund per foot.
This was considered too high, and an offer of 500 pounds was made and subsequently paid by the Bulli Shire."
A community determining its own future, a developer who would negotiate and a council that showed vision, listened and negotiated for an outcome that was to bring the best long-term outcome for residents and ratepayers and not just an immediate develop at all costs approach!
all the best for 2002
Kerrie Christian
ps I sent out the CANS document a while back to many of you with its views on community visions for planning in the northern suburbs and now I have included some thoughts from David Winterbottom whilst he was Director of Planning - Wollongong City Council - some of which could be incorporated into council's planning for the future, City Strategies, David is an amazing gentleman who is usually at least 10 years ahead of planning trends
Medium/Long Term Vision for Development and Environment Activities
There are three broad strategies which should be articulated more clearly in terms of the direction in which Council should proceed:
1. to give more emphasis to the detailed needs and requirements of very local communities both in terms of developing controls and programs to meet their requirements and getting them involved;
2. to be much more strategic in our approach to the amalgamation of minor elements such that they form a comprehensible identifiable whole in the long term;
3. to move from an emphasis on control of development and environmental degradation to an emphasis on the promotion of development and environmental improvement.
1 Local Issues
Consideration needs to be given to:
- the decentralisation of administration into at least three area-based teams;
- a more flexible user friendly assessment system of development proposals but on the basis that costs are covered;
- the modification of development control plans for residential development such that they operate on a precinct by precinct basis rather than across the whole City;
- a review of these precincts in an attempt to improve both their amenity in landscape terms, safety in traffic terms and accessibility to schools, playgrounds and shopping in pedestrian terms;
- using community groups in planning this and in playing a greater role in the positive improvement of their communities via `Rise and Shine', tree planting, or pollution reduction, etc programmes;
- detailed planning for west Dapto.
2 Strategic Components
- There needs to be a reinforcement of the Escarpment Park and as the capacity for community planting grows so there ought to be far more activities in acquiring disturbed land on the Escarpment and revegetating it.
- The Escarpment Walking Trail, both along the top and the fire trail with linking tracks, needs to be implemented again essentially using the community to do this.
- A similar trail needs to be established along the hind dune using the existing cycleway for much of it but essentially attempting to generate a series of beachside parks linked by a cycleway/walking trail.
- The Green Corridor concept needs to be reinforced by emphasising hill tops and by linking and elaborating and enlarging our open space system to link the Escarpment Park to the beachside parks. There is no reason why part of the trails through these parks should not use the local road system where necessary.
- The landscape structure of the City needs better articulation particularly along the major roads.
- The shopping centres should each develop a Mainstreet-type program to make them far more user friendly and environmentally pleasant with strong Chamber of Commerce involvement in the planning and in the paying for and facilitation of improvements.
- The road hierarchy needs to be refined to categorise the distributor roads into those which are expected to be relatively high speed/high volume routes and those which of necessity will be low speed/high volume routes.
David Winterbottom
Director of Development
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