Hornsby Council’s proposal to put an 8-10 storey development between Pennant Hills Rd and the railway line plus the 5 storey units for Station St and surrounds in Thornleigh as well as their proposal for Normanhurst leaves my partner and I gob smacked, dumfounded, and very angry. Their own documentation highlights traffic issues and the lack of green space available for the required parks. Pennant Hills Road is already a nightmare and Sefton Rd, Milson Pde, Malsbury Rd, Clark Rd, College Crescent & Unwin Rd can resemble a car park in peak and school times and it just gets worse. Council’s approval of those really disgraceful, environmentally/people unfriendly monstrosities in Waitara, that have no extra green space with people looking into other peoples living spaces, is a promise of things to come if we are complacent. Could I borrow our mayor's rose coloured glasses so I too can "see Waitara in a new light". I don't know of anyone (except the mayor and probably the developers) who see this once reasonable suburb as anything other than an horrific eyesore. If we are forced to have more people (which we actually can't sustain) in this already gridlocked and overcrowded city then we must make sure that any future buildings are as green as possible and not ugly, cheaply built, shoddy highrise developments with their potential future problems (problems which WILL rear their ugly heads eventually). We must not make the mistakes of Waitara again. 5 storey buildings cheek by jowl with no privacy is not the way to go. Come on ratepayers we elect these people to represent us and we need to stand up and be counted or we will be bulldozed as surely as Waitara was.

In the recent Housing Strategy forums held by Hornsby Councils' Planning Department, one of the posters read;

"The Challenge for Hornsby Shire:

How can council ensure an adequate supply of houses to meet state government requirements based on a predicated growing & aging population, while PROTECTING BUSHLAND, PROPERTY VALUES, EXISTING RESIDENTIAL CHARACTER & NOT OVERBURDENING ROADS & SERVICES?"

By any measure, Hornsby council planning has NOT ACHIEVED ANY of its stated objectives!

A five story flat roofed public housing style box building planted in the middle of predominately single story pitched roofed houses is the very antithesis of the stated objective; blighting the bushland, reducing property values, destroying the existing residential character & overburdening our roads & services!

The traffic issues in Thornleigh will be worsened by the proposed gross over-development of the SAN hospital site. STEP Inc has commented in its submission to the Dept of Planning on this issue as follows:

o Hornsby Shire Housing Strategy Impacts

In the case of the Comenarra Parkway [and Wood Street] / Pennant Hills Road intersections, this bottleneck problem will be worsened by recent development proposals under the Hornsby Housing Strategy Plan. This Strategy plans to redevelop the area to the left of the Comenarra Parkway at the intersection with Pennant Hills Road, into five story high rise housing units, while allowing ten story commercial developments on the directly opposite side of Pennant Hills Road. This will bring significant additional population and traffic into the area, whose impacts have not been taken into account in the traffic studies done to date for the WER site.

It is widely conceded that the section of Pennant Hills Road that links the M2 to the F3, and that runs through this intersection at Thornleigh, is already running at maximum capacity in normal times and is often dangerously overcrowded at peak times. There has been for some time now a proposal for a new tunnel to link the F3 to the M2 but there are no current funding arrangements or agreements at either State or Federal level to allow this work to commence. Given current economic circumstances in Australia, STEP and many expert commentators do not foresee any such funding agreements being reached any time soon. No assured reliance can be placed on this project ever commencing, let alone in a time frame to improve the functioning of this intersection in any meaningful way for the purposes of the WER plans.

STEP is of the view that no approvals be given for the WER plan until the long mooted improvements to alleviate this situation are in place and proven to be working. (See also detailed intersection upgrade commentary further on).

and further

• Pennant Hills Road and Comenarra Parkway

STEP believes that the current MWT plans with regard to this intersection are deficient and need to be re-examined for the following reasons:

• They do not take into account the impacts on the performance of this intersection of the Comenarra Parkway intersection with Wood Street, which is situated immediately prior to its intersection with Pennant Hills Road (approximately 100 meters only). For all intents and purposes the two intersections operate as one and any planning should include that fact. The MWT report did not specifically look at the Wood Street intersection at all, and yet Comenarra Parkway traffic uses the Wood Street turn off as a major left turn alternative “rat run” detour around the Thornleigh Market Place shopping centre and on to Pennant Hills Road using Bellevue Street and other streets elsewhere in Thornleigh.

• The MWT plan seems to approach this intersection from the point of view of improving traffic flows into Comenarra Parkway off Pennant Hills Road, yet the biggest traffic congestion actually occurs from cars on Comenarra Parkway trying get onto Pennant Hills Road. In this regard the MWT plan offers no improvement. Every day of the working week there are morning and afternoon queues stretching back a kilometre from Wood Street to Fox Valley Road. The situation is untenable now and will get much worse if the WER plan is approved.

• The absence of any consideration of the impacts which the Hornsby Housing Strategy, referred to above, will have on this intersection. The streets around the proposed development are narrow and will be required to accommodate considerable additional local traffic and the inevitable on street parking that goes with multi story residential apartment blocks. The following points in particular need to be taken into consideration:

o This additional traffic will become prime users of the two intersections and will add to the considerable congestion already evident. The Thornleigh Market Place shopping centre is increasingly attracting shoppers from further afield; all use their cars to access the centre. There are now plans for ALDI to locate a new shopping centre on Pennant Hills Road alongside the existing Thornleigh Market Place; this will attract even more road traffic to this congested area.

o Thornleigh Station is not easily accessible; yet it is increasingly used by commuters from as far afield as Cherrybrook and elsewhere on “park and ride” basis. Local rail car parking arrangements are already unable to cater for all of these commuters and their numbers are expected to increase. The result is that demand for nearby roadside parking spaces continues to increase and the narrow road system further congests.

o MWT propose the elimination of the right hand turn from Pennant Hills Road into Parkes Street, suggesting that traffic can alternatively make such turns either to the north and south of the intersection. This is incorrect; Parkes Street is the only right turn for most traffic wanting to use the drop off zone for Thornleigh Station and to gain access to the local industrial and commercial area.

o Pedestrian safety is becoming a real issue in this area now as the “rat run” frustrations manifest themselves in dangerous road behaviour. Recent incidents include a child knocked down on the eastern side of Station Street by a car that did not stop at the stop sign (a frequent occurrence in the area). Incidences of both cars and motor cycles using the foot paths to try to circumvent traffic hold ups are becoming increasingly frequent.

STEP believes that a new holistic planning review needs to be undertaken, including inputs from both the RTA and Hornsby Council, as to how traffic management in this area will take place over the next two decades. Short term plans in isolation of each other will only produce chaos. Such a review needs to be completed prior to any further consideration of the traffic impacts of the WER being undertaken.

• Comenarra Parkway/Wood Street

See comments above.

Thornleigh - Normanhurst residents group started with the closure of Thornleigh Public School and pre-dates many of the shire's community groups.

New members are welcome.

The TNRG meeting on Thurs night discussed the following issues related to the housing strategy.

Pennant Hills Road.

Pennant Hills Road precinct.

Station Street precinct.

It was agreed that some form of development is both inevitable and necessary, and that sensible and sensitive planning will benefit the community.

However, the current proposals are neither - what has been presented instead seems to be the result of a few geeks playing Simcity on their computers rather than professional and visionary planning - a cynical ploy to appease Macquarie Street whilst retaining their jobs.

Current roads, electricity supply, and water supply are already inadequate, and increasing population density without upgrading these services will seriously impact on residents.

Another point raised was the lack of contact and co-operation between the various residents groups operating in the shire.

It appears that there are conflicting interests with Nimby attitudes prevailing.

The Hon. Gregory Donnelly is the Government Whip in State Parliament and a Westleigh resident. It is proposed that he would be a suitable recipient for letters of protest as he is a local who would be familiar local issues.

[1] Pennant Hills Road.

The most critical issue for residents is PHR and the impact of proposed developments.

The proposed precincts are astride PHR at the narrowest point of the north/south corridor. The only alternate route at this point is the Esplanade, which is incapable of carrying heavy trucks so a significant accident adjacent to the precincts will completely stop north/south flow.

There has been no attempt to resolve the PHR traffic situation, the Tunnel has become too hard, too expensive and the Sydney Bypass a fantasy.

The two new precincts and the Adventist development will greatly add to traffic on roads already unable to cope with current volumes - PHR, Comenarra, Woods, and Bellevue Streets and their associated 'rat runs'.

Last weeks narrowing alteration to Bellevue Street near the Wood St intersection - is it a crossing ? - has resulted in a immediate diversion of 'rat run rats' into Woods, Thornleigh, Paling, Cavendish and Albion Streets. This route is steep, narrow and twisty, and these speeding hoons will injure or kill someone soon.

Council proposes to add high rise residents and Adventist development's vehicles to this traffic.

[2] Pennant Hills Road precinct.

The proposed ten storey towers will replace a struggling and run down commercial centre. TNRG are not opposed to this proposal, providing adequate provision is made for residential traffic and parking. No homes need to be destroyed to build these; these towers will help us meet our 'quota' and perhaps relieve pressure on other areas.

It is felt that such a ghetto, isolated by PHR and the railway, will be extremely unattractive but if anyone is stupid enough to build it, so be it.

[3] Station Street precinct.

Again, adequate provision for residential traffic and parking is required. TNRG is concerned that 5 storey units on the Thornleigh St boundary of the precinct will overshadow homes on the other side of Thornleigh St and that 3 storey maximum structures on this side would be more appropriate.

There are some fine, brand new homes within this precinct that would have been approved while this strategy was being prepared and are now going to be rezoned.

This proposed development needs re-examining - it is proposed to replace 50 homes with 130 high rise dwellings - a nett gain of 80 dwellings. As most units have two bedrooms, there may be no actual gain in the number of residents at a cost of huge upheaval and distress for the current home-owners.

The 'gains' will be more ratepayers and more stamp duty which is probably the real reason behind all this.

Please note I attended the meeting but do not represent TNRG.