We In Coogee Have Done Our Bit

By Bruce Notley-Smith on February 17, 2015 in Other

Every few years state governments, exasperated with local councils that repeatedly resist their demands to increase housing density, step-in with slick urban renewal schemes to get things moving, cheered on by Department of Planning bureaucrats. Glossy brochures full of artists’ impressions depict tree-lined boulevards devoid of cars, bordered by uber-designed, glass-curtained apartment blocks and groovy cafes full of smiling young families. It all looks so utopian on paper, but in real life it almost always turns out grim.

Perhaps it’s in the harsh light of day under the intense Australian sun that the appeal is bleached out, just like those fluorescent lights at closing time in a nightclub that strip away the appeal of the person you’re dancing with.

After 15 years in public office, whenever I hear a planning boffin utter terms like ‘urban renewal’, ‘precinct revitalisation’ or ‘urban activation’, I am overcome with a desire to tear out their throat. These descriptions once detailed inspirational visions of idyllic suburban splendour, but now they are just euphemisms or code for ghastly high-rise apartments designed by hipster architects inspired by the Lego blocks of their youth. These terms often pop-up in the call for us all to do our bit to accommodate Sydney’s ever-growing population.

Coogee is the second most densely populated electorate in NSW, with 6,162 residents squeezed into each square kilometre. We have twice the population density of the electorate of Vaucluse and four times that of Maroubra. We in Coogee have done our bit and don’t need to increase housing density, so hearing of the proposed Randwick Urban Activation Precinct (UAP) in July 2012 turned me white hot in apoplectic rage. I became determined to put a stop to it.

Bureaucrats claimed the South East Light Rail Line was contingent on the UAP. That was a lie. At no time in the preparation of the business case for the light rail was a UAP ever considered a part of the equation. To me, this UAP looks suspiciously like a rebadged leftover from the previous Labor Government’s Metropolitan Strategy of 2010.

After two years and countless meetings with the Premier and other ministers, I have succeeded in getting the government to abolish the Randwick UAP. Few people deny that there are suburbs that could do with a spruce-up, and it’s true that there is a gaping chasm between what the state government wants and what councils actually deliver. Councillors are usually so bogged-down dealing with minor, often trivial building design issues that they rarely ever get the opportunity or time to seriously consider the big picture of planning for their council area, let alone their region.

Every decade or so councillors vote on a new Local Environment Plan (LEP). The LEP is earnestly pulled together by a council’s planning staff, often for it to be subsequently pulled to pieces by councillors who had very little involvement in its drafting and feel no sense of ownership of it.

Local government was established by state government to make decisions with the benefit of the local knowledge of elected councillors and the expertise of council staff. It is a huge responsibility, and requires a great deal more education that is presently available to councillors.

As a former councillor and mayor, I understand the problem, but imposing UAPs, side-lining councils and freaking out the community is not the solution to planning our city’s future. We must ensure the environment exists in which the state, councillors and our local communities become more actively engaged in informed and visionary planning of our communities each and every step of the way.