How Councillors Vote
8 September 2017
Do you think it 'interesting' that The Greens would rather preference Liberal or Labor or anybody but SaveRandwick?
If you knew the voting record of East Ward Greens Councillor Murray Matson then it is totally understandable. His track record of voting with the Liberals and against his fellow Greens Councillors is there for all to see.
He voted for merging with Waverley & their $40m debt, for 18 storey high rise in Kensington & Kingsford, to rezone Kingsford Markets from PUBLIC OPEN SPACE to 8 Storey High Density High rise, for a $5,000/month additional allowance for sitting on the one committee (see below for more). Worst of all for many was his vote that led to the destruction of the trees. Always against the community and always the excuses follow. "Gun to our head" - that's when we need Councillors to stand up for the community not themselves!
REMEMBER THE INGLIS SITE
Yes he voted for 8 storey high rise there as well. He was in good company.
FOURTEEN COUNCILLORS vs One - voted in favour of rezoning from Heritage Conservation, Low density residential to HIGH DENSITY up to 8 Storey HIGH RISE- overlooking Rainbow St Public, Randwick Girls and Randwick Boys and to further choke Barker St.
ENOUGH SAID. Traffic chaos and windfall profits for developers go hand in hand...
The Community needs your vote tomorrow. Do not make the mistake of voting for the politicians and their donors.
We want your Vote. Vote for the Community tomorrow - NOT DEVELOPERS.
It has not mattered which party has been in power at Randwick or the State level - Developers keep getting the nod with the windfall profits whilst the Community is left with traffic chaos, over-crowded schools etc.
_________________________________
August 2017 We wish there was good news to report about how the Councillors voted - there is not.
All Political Parties campaigned at the 2012 Elections saying they'd "Fight Inappropriate OverDevelopment". It seems their definition of "Inappropriate" is nothing like the community's. In fact - OverDevelopment of any sort is wrong. Unlike some others what we say we do. Over the last 5 years we have continued to fight for residents against the developers and have testified at a number of Land & Environment Court hearings. Randwick City Council HOWEVER chose to exit the hearings and create an 'agreement' with the developers instead of following through with the hearing. Is this a case of "SEEN TO BE DONE"?
On the some of the most crucial votes for the community - guess which side the votes went? Against the community's interests in our view.
Many times, certain high profile Councillors have claimed "Guns to their heads" as their excuse to roll over and let the developers or State Govt get its way. Do you think that is FIGHTING or SURRENDERING?
When challenged the next excuse often given - "We needed to get a seat at the table."
NOT WHEN THAT seat comes at the community's expense they didn't.
WEST Ward
EAST Ward
NORTH Ward
18 Storey HIGH RISE for Kensington & Kingsford
Have you seen any mention of this in the election material coming into your letterboxes? For some reason we haven't either?
Do you think Councillors voting to introduce 18 storey HIGH RISE = INAPPROPRIATE OVER-DEVELOPMENT?
At recent meet-the-candidates events (in West Ward) the Liberal Party apparently did not even respond to one email inviting them to attend despite follow-ups by both the Kensington West Kingsford and Kingsford South Precincts. It was the first time in over 20 years that ANY party refused to take part at Kingsford South - invisible Councillors perhaps?
Was their absence due to the broken promises they made in 2012 to attend every opportunity they got. They did not manage once in 5 years. The Greens and Labor attended both and faced the music.
With changes to the planning rules introduced by the State Govt - the developers might not even have to provide on-site parking. One local developer has complied with the law 100% - their donations to the major parties were made at the Federal level not the State Divisions. We will post a link to allow you to see which developers have been supporting the political parties (at the Federal level of course).
FORCED MERGER - Council capitulated, with all but one Liberal Councillor abandoning residents, one ALP as well as the Greens East Ward Councillor Matson - both defied their respective party's State Policy and voted in favour of forced amalgamation. If not for a number of BRAVE Woollahra Councillors defying the Liberal Party policy - RANDWICK would be gone and ratepayers would have been saddled with Waverley's $40 million in debt.
$5,000/mth Forced Merger Transition Committee Allowance - Eleven Councillors (5 Liberal, 3 Labor, 2 Green and 1 Independent) voted to approve the allowance and just 4 against.
Light Rail - Randwick to foot the costs of offsetting some of the damage ($67m+ ) caused by the State Govt -
Disturbingly, yet again Council voted against the interests of residents and elected to foot the bill in attempting to offset some of the over 1,000 lost car spaces, install new traffic lights required by the Light Rail as well as purchase part of the Kingsford Markets site back from the State Govt at the significantly increased price of nearly $12 million.
Contrast this with the State Govt compensating the Racecourse & Australian Turf Club for its lost parking by building FREE-OF-CHARGE a 4 storey car park. After all the members could not be expected to have to park in the middle of the racecourse like everybody else could they?
What is worse is that the parcel of land RCC is buying was REZONED in 2012 despite residents putting in submissions, emails, phone calls to every Councillor - BEGGING them not to rezone it from PUBLIC OPEN SPACE reserved for future transport use to 8-storey high density. Prior to the rezoning it was valued at less than $1m apparently.
Unfortunately the East Ward Greens Councillor voted (yet again?) against his fellow Greens AS WELL AS seconding the motion - which saw it pass by just one vote. Did we mention that MEALS-on-WHEELS were kicked out of the site and forced to operate out in the open from a car park in all weather? They asked us not to publicise this at the 2012 Council Elections - so we kept silent.
BTW - The Anzac Parade Figs, along with nearly 1,000 other trees were listed for Council to see long before they signed on the dotted line despite residents & SaveRandwick again pleading with them to support residents' wishes.
Do you think the Councillors' actions were in the Community's interests - we don't?
Did they live up to their previous election promises?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Randwick Council will hold its first meeting following the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor on 25 Sept. Three of the development applications are clear examples of over-development.
It will be the first chance for the community to see if the election promises of opposing over-development will be fulfilled. There are 12 development applications, all except one recommended for approval by Council staff.
The most horrific application is for a 110 studio building over 8 levels at 390-396 Anzac Parade Kingsford. Just 34 carparking spaces are planned. The site backs onto the McDonalds carpark and is on the corner of Middle and Harbourne Lanes. There is already a large unit block on to the south of the site, facing Anzac Parade.
As the development is to be a boarding house a bonus 0.5 to floor space ratio is allowed, but even that is not enough, instead of a maximum 2.5 to 1, this proposal seeks 3.5 to 1. Also the very generous height if 24m for the commercial centre is not enough, with the plans being just under 26 metres. Incredible, but also very sad for many of the units to the south who will lose sunlight.
The Anzac Parade horror is closely followed by a proposed conversion of the Gemini Motel, on 65-71 Belmore Road Randwick. Currently 98 motel rooms, the plans are now for 63 studio units, 7 one bed, 4 two beds and 16 serviced apartments with 43 car parking spaces.
There’s no change to the building itself, but clearly a change of use to permanent occupation is an intensification of use, parking on demand for parking. Most of the planned studios are tiny, single aspect units. A proposal for larger and fewer units is required for this building.
The third over-development is at the old Prince Henry hospital site at 1-3 Jenner Street Little Baythere is a 73 unit building over 4-5 levels. The redevelopment of this site was governed by a special “2D” residential zoning which limits floor space ratio to 1.1 and building height to 15m (14m wall height). Instead what is proposed is 17 metres high with a floor space ratio of 1.45 to 1. As part of the ‘justification’ for excess floor space, it’s noted that an approval for an aged care facility also breached the floor space ratio, although by not as much. Tricky, get an approval for community need and then apply to build something else.
Too bad for neighbours who bought on the basis of the zoning being respected, never trust the representations of real estate salespeople regarding adjoining unbuilt sites, although in this case it seems developers and Council (if approved) will be to blame.
The development application recommended for refusal is for the Seals Club plan to extend their carpark at 9-11 Fenton Street Maroubra. The site adjoins the existing Seals carpark, but consent for this carpark was only granted for interim use, which expired in 2008. It seems the use of the existing has been continuing on an ‘unauthorised’ basis since then.
Expect some heavy lobbying for the application for the additional carpark, or perhaps it’s a lever to influence outcomes over controversial Maroubra Beach commercial centre rezoning process which by allowing buildings up to 16 metres high (Seals Club is around 22 metres) breaches a 12 metre height applied to other coastal areas in the area.
Let’s hope our new Council will respect their election promises. The community is watching. We will track the outcome of all over-development on our website www.SaveRandwick.com
