Just a reminder if you have not yet completed our survey, please read on and complete it. Please see note at the bottom re using a mouse.
In our email of 3 May, we told you about Ku-ring-gai Council’s Draft Housing Strategy, which was on public exhibition from 26 March 2020 to 8 May 2020. We mentioned that we would be running a survey to get community views on the form and location of new dwellings in Lindfield and surrounding suburbs. A link to the survey is here and at the bottom of this message. But please watch the video (next paragraph) first. (If you prefer to read rather than listen, go the link at the bottom of this message and click on the script link.)
Support Lindfield video
Before you start the survey, we recommend that you watch this video we have prepared that provides some background information about Council’s Draft Housing Strategy.
The Draft Housing Strategy documents
You can find the draft Housing Strategy documents at this link. Much of the important detail is contained in the Technical Document and its Appendices.
Some key information about the Draft Housing Strategy
The Draft Housing Strategy is premised on there being a need for an additional 10,660 new dwellings across Ku-ring-gai in the period 2016 to 2036. Council has allocated 1,600 of the new dwellings to Lindfield. The Strategy does not take into account the COVID-19 pandemic, which is likely to have a significant impact on population growth in Sydney, at least in the short-term.
The Support Lindfield Committee is not satisfied that there is in fact a requirement for Council to deliver the number of new dwellings proposed in the Draft Housing Strategy and we question the appropriateness of the density and height of development proposed. However, we appreciate that Council is required to have a strategy for housing and that it will likely need to deliver some new dwellings between now and 2036.
The Draft Housing Strategy identifies four relatively small geographical areas for new housing - within an 800m radius of the train stations in Lindfield, Gordon and Turramurra and within 800m of the St Ives centre. It contemplates apartment buildings of up to 15 storeys in Lindfield, Turramurra and St Ives and 20 storeys in Gordon.
We want the community to have a say
We know that many of you will have views on the height, form and location of new housing in Ku-ring-gai and we therefore feel that it is important to bring the Draft Housing Strategy to your attention so you can have your say.
Council officers refused to extend the public exhibition period, despite it directly coinciding with the COVID-19 shutdown and several requests (including from some Councillors). This is extremely disappointing in circumstances where the State Government was amenable to an extension and given there are community members who would like to provide input but missed the deadline.
Although the deadline for submissions has passed, we still think it’s worth making the views of the community known and we propose to do that by delivering a report on our survey results to Council. Our survey focuses on Lindfield, Killara and Roseville. If you would like to provide input on the Draft Housing Strategy more broadly, we suggest that you email Councillors directly with your views. Councillors@kmc.nsw.gov.au will reach all 10 Councillors.
The survey
To complete the survey click on this link. Please note that you will require a mouse to complete two questions so it is not possible to complete the whole survey on an IPad or IPhone.
The more respondents we have, the more useful the survey results will be. You can help by encouraging at least 5 others to complete the survey - neighbours, friends, family, colleagues etc - preferably people who live in the local area.
Thank you very much for your support. Please contact us at info@supportlindfield.net with any comments or questions.
Regards,
The Support Lindfield team
For a full transcript of the video, please download the PDF.