Bend over backwards for developers and ignore community: New faces same old pattern

Monday nights special development meeting and the complete lack of strategy from the Gash-ites is now entrenched.

As I previously blogged- the Local Environment Plan is about setting the future for development in the Shoalhaven and should not be time for awarding either spot rezoning's (like they did on Friday) or creating preposterous guidelines like they did yesterday.

Last nights meeting was looking primarily at Height of Building Mapping across the city. This has been a significant issue with the community and received the most volume of correspondence than any other single item.

Of course people are concerned that Shoalhaven City Council would height map the city at a  homogenous 11meters.

During the last round of negotiations a compromise was set that mapped heights agreed on through development control plans into the local environment plan.

An example of this is the 'sit down in front' principle that maps certain areas of foreshore at 6.5 meters to enable view sharing. Another example is 23meters in Nowra business area.

At last nights meeting Council spent 40 mins debating the needs of one developer with an aim to set height controls on his block of land at 13m which is 2m above  the city average. This block is beside the shops at St Georges Basin and is surrounded by residential subdivision.

A 13m development at this site will look like a pimple on a pumpkin-out of place and potentially unattractive. The proponent made an almost incoherent argument to justify his 13 m extension but it boiled down to it just wasn't economically viable unless it was 13m high!!!!!

I would put it to him that he shouldn't be building something that will be so out of character with the village and that is what will make it unviable- no one will want it!

Its not like Council had to award 13m last night- for just like every other person in the Shoalhaven he can put in a separate planning proposal which would go through rigorous community consultation.

Meanwhile while they were trying to work out how to give this 13m 'gift' to the developer they completely ignored the communities pleas to cap the residential area at 8.5m but left it at 11m which opens the gate for all sorts of 'pimples' to develop in essentially the seaside village of Huskisson- talk about shooting the Goose that lays the Golden Egg!!

But then it seems as though strategic vision isn't the strong point of this new batch of Councillors which is completely at odds with the indications that they have given the community.

"of course tourism is a valuable industry'

"oh I completely agree with your assertions'

But in the end the votes don't line up with the talk- say one thing- vote in the opposite way. And of course the ubiquitous one rule for the community who have already invested their combined millions in the area - and another rule for a favoured few.

Breath Amanda breath...........................

Tell the community weve rezoned land!- NO WAY

At Fridays Special Development meeting to consider the Local Environment Plan, Gashites refused to support an amendment that would see neighbours and community groups advised of zoning changes.

An example of this is the zoning change awarded to the Vincentia Golf Club- who have in their ownership a parcel of land that is zoned for environmental purposes. I have not been on the land but when you see an arial photograph you can see that is heavily vegetated with perhaps a creek running through it. I would be happy enough to consider it a conservation zone.

The Club put forward a submission requesting the zone be changed to RE2 private recreation to facilitate future expansion of the club.

This particular request has only been available for a sharp eyed council watcher to find in business papers since around the 15 July and frankly many wouldn't be looking or expecting such a change to happen as it was not advertised with the mapping and the golf course did not raise it in the first round of the environment plan submission.

I raised the issue and failed to gain any support- not even a seconder to at least NOTIFY the neighbours and the community group that covers the area. On the scale of community consultation NOTIFY is a valid form of communication not consultation.

The Gashites thought I was trying to derail a process and didn't seem to understand that it was merely a courtesy letter I was asking for. I tried again later in the meeting and still no luck.

For a council that stated very loudly in their election campaign that they wanted to have a strong consultative manner for working with the community they either don't understand what it means or have re written the definition.

So a rezoning decision has been made and yet very few people will know about it- I think that's a poor process- how about you?

Fridays meeting was an improvement from Wednesdays debacle. Gashites seemed to have read and understood the ramifications of awarding spot rezones. As previously discussed on this blog I have had many conversations with different Gashites who tell me how important they believe strategic planning is and how they recognise that the Shoalhaven's tourist industry is powered by our excellent environment. Yet there seems to be little understanding that making a rezoning happen in isolation to a plan and some proper investigations sets a bad precedent and crate unplanned disasters into the future.

lets see how today goes.

Fools Gold / Development at any cost mentality reigns supreme in the Shoalhaven

sorry bout the fast and dirty adaptation of the Frederick County road sign :)
 

Shoalhaven Open for Business-

The question is when was it ever closed!!!!!

The Liberals are taking their tired old mantra to new heights encouraged all the way by the old master Greg Watson.

Seriously who believes that the Shoalhaven has been closed-the old dominating Watson regime was in power for many years and had a develop at any cost mantra and this 'new Gash Council' is no different.

Clr Patricia White is chairing the special development meetings that are considering the latest round of submissions on the Local Environment Plan.

White wanted to hold the meetings in a super meeting over one weekend a sure recipe for disaster as fatigue and forgetfulness would fuel poor decision making and a very poor way to encourage community participation.

Mind you watching the dynamics of the chamber and the reliance on Watson's advice is sickening and perhaps fatigue would have produced better outcomes.

It has even been reported to me that in a desperate bid to make sure the Gashites didn't change the very scant and poor aims and objectives of the plan they invoked the Findley / Greens characterisation argument.

That's the argument were Watson and Guile make out that it is Findley's / The Greens fault that not much has happened in the city for years. HELLO when have the Greens actually been in 'power' in the Shoalhaven?

Millions of dollars of projects have been approved over the last 10 years and many of them languish not because the Greens caused it, but I would argue that the proposals were far to intense and simply not palatable in a low key area like the Shoalhaven-its a supply and demand type of issue.

So when previous develop at any cost Councils approved proposals that are outside development controls- push height limits too far and building set backs into impact zones they encourage a 'fools gold' mentality and people should shoulder some responsibility for their decisions.

The argument the Conservatives throw back is - well the developer knows best- what's viable / what's not. Sure they know what's best for their business but if the governing body actually had a vision other than the develop at any cost one- then development expectations would be more in line with the expected market and the existing community- people don't live here because they want it to be like Shellharbour! The Shoalhaven has many different characteristic's and that's why planning to suit them is so important.

Meanwhile back at the meetings Councillors are making poor decisions despite best efforts to try and explain why they shouldn't. I accept that there is more than one way to make decisions, but I also maintain that we have a community of people who care about the city they live in and Council should do its utmost to include them in every step of the planning process. NOT present unwieldy business papers and carry out poor consultation procedures.

I advised Clr White that this process is poor prior to them adopting it- seems it fell on deaf ears. Clr White has run for Council a couple of times before and she spent no time in the chamber during the last Planning phase to see what worked- yet her infinite wisdom didn't support what was a much better process last time around.

It's not over yet so I will keep you posted.

A month away- but nothing has changed

I've spent a month in the charming company of friends, camping along the east coast of Australia- an amazing adventure with many stories to tell.

So I'm back in the Shoalhaven feeling refreshed and relaxed and ready to be a little bit more friendly towards my Council colleagues.

Or so I thought.

That glowing feeling lasted about 20 mins into yesterdays policy resources and reserves committee, when It dawned on me that this Council has reached new heights of brainlessness and the grand puppet master Greg Watson is back yanking the conservatives strings ( not that he really went any where).

This was followed up be reading some distressing emails from the LEP review group.

During last nights meeting I put forward a motion that nominated Gash, Wells, Guile and myself as voting delegates for the upcoming Local Government Conference. I thought that was a reasonable reflection of the mix on Council.

The Local Government conference is a place were the members (local councils) give advice to a state body ( the association) to lobby state and federal government on behalf of Councils. The associations position is voted on via motions at conference and its highly political.

So the puppet masters opening salvo was don't send Findley she will tow the Greens party line and not support Shoalhaven motions  which in the past have been very ordinary and often criticised by other non Green Councillor who I have met through the independents network.

Of course Wells jumped on this comment as he thought I had voted against a Shoalhaven motion at the last conference, I asked that the motion be referred to the executive to check for validity as there was an active court case on the issue at the time.

At the last Conference the Gashites didn't call a pre conference meeting to discuss the business paper or even their position on the Shoalhaven motions which had been formulated not by them but the outgoing conservative Gareth Ward. They had no understanding or backgrounding on the motions. So they either thought they knew what they were doing or left it to others to do a job for them.

I had two motions at conference that were successfully supported by conference ( they forget the good bits) and these motion were supported by an overwhelming majority not by a division.

Clr Robertson who I have found to be fair minded- didn't want to support my motion "not because of the people being put forward" but because he wasn't sure about who was going-I told the meeting on three occasions that I would be attending. He shattered his own argument about two mins later when he voted for delegates that didn't include me- so Clive it definitely was about the people then?

 So one of those who I though was fair minded and more inclined towards equity showed his true "blue" colours and the Puppet master Watson smugly walked away with a voting right.

The hypocrisy of the situation is astounding- the Local Government act enshrines that there should be no binding caucus amongst local government members DO YOU HEAR THAT GASHITES- NO BINDING CAUCUS. yet here was a meeting of Council that was trying to bind its members to a position for conference!!!! and then later in the meeting saying that a referendum vote was completely based on a conscience vote.

Blah these people make me sick with their blatant hypocrisy and in some instances what can only be described as downright forked tongue double speak. I've seen almost all of them now say one thing in a public forum and vote completely the opposite in Council.

So the Puppet master Watson pulls their strings, even though they wanted to end the Watson regime that was supposedly ruining the Shoalhaven just 11 months ago, surely Watson is rubbing his hands with glee as the dominant faction swallow his bait and vote accordingly.

If  the Gashites even listen to a small proportion of my debate they would actually understand that I'm not as hard left as Watson would have them believe- but hey they don't listen to the community so why would they listen to me.