Community aghast over Green Paper

With the public submission phase now complete, residents in the Inner West are apprehensive about the State Government’s strategy to change local planning powers outlined in the Green Paper.

Locals fear the State Government are taking developmental planning powers away from local councils and residents, and placing them directly into the hands of the developers. Marrickville resident, Adrienne Shilling said she is concerned the proposed changes will ensure residents are no longer informed about developments, even should they live in close proximity.

“You will not be notified by Council, so you could wake up one day and find a block of units going up in the next yard or across the road, and that will be the first you know of it and that would be legal,” Ms Shilling said. “I am very worried about that.”

Ms Shilling is concerned by the foundation on which that the Green Paper lies.

“Originally … they put together a paper with the general thrust being that sustainable ecological principles had to be followed. When the issues paper became a Green Paper, the ecologically sustainable principles were removed, so what it’s all about in the Green Paper appears to be economic growth,” she said.

“In an age of climate change it is very, very, worrying. How I interpret it is that the developer comes along with a lot of money and they want to put something up in a bush land that’s endangered, or in an area where there aren’t any parks and they won’t be bound by a law with ecologically sustainable principles.”

Leichhardt resident Teena Clerke is likewise concerned about the lack of information provided to the public on Green Paper tenders and criticised the proposed reduction in community consultation. In her submission to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure, Ms Clerke writes: “We, the community and Leichhardt Municipal Council, need more detail. The document is superficial, light on detail and provides inadequate information.

“We would like to ensure that public participation is genuine, extensive and fully resourced, particularly following current procedures, rather than on an exclusively online basis.”

Mayor Mayor Rochelle Porteous said the Green councillors would intervene on behalf of the public in order to “get the best outcome that we can for local residents” in fighting against over development.

“It is a massive gift to developers at the expense of local communities and all, but completely disenfranchising neighbours and community members,” she said. “Councils are democratically elected and accountable planning authorities, intimately connected to the communities they represent. They should determine development applications in their areas.”