Joint Groups Oppose Rezoning

A meeting today of the joint community groups who have been fighting to
protect Sandon Point from over-development, overwhelmingly declared their
opposition to the State Environmental Planning Policy which rezones Sandon
Point for development.

The meeting is calling for the new Minister for Planning, Tony Kelly, to
repeal the SEPP in light of:

• the conflict of interest inherent in the developer’s providing donations
to the State Labor Government,
• the ongoing community opposition to this development throughout over
twenty years of consultation and participation in multiple lengthy and
detailed studies,
• the fact that the extent of the rezoning conflicts with advice from the
Government’s own environmental and natural resources experts,
• the rezoning also conflicts with advice and recommendations from the
Government’s own Commissioners of Inquiry,
• the risk to life and property identified by the Government’s own
flooding experts,
• the incomplete state of the Government’s own Sea Level Rise Policy
Guidelines,
• the exemption of this SEPP from the provisions of the Government’s own
Coastal Protection Planning Policy.

Northern Illawarra Residents Action Group president Alex Peterson, said,
“the current Premier, just before challenging the Nathan Rees for the job,
rezoned this flood-prone land for building, against the strong advice of
her own Government experts and Wollongong City Council. Downstream
residents like myself, are very concerned about the increased risk of
flooding to our properties as a result of the development impacts.”

Dootch Kennedy, Chair of the Illawarra Local Aboriginal Lands Council and
spokesperson for the Sandon Point Aboriginal Tent Embassy, said that there
are areas within the rezoned land that had not been properly investigated
for Aboriginal significance and artefacts. It is likely that there will be
more tool-making sites and potential archaeological deposits.

"Court applicant and representative of the Sandon Point Community Picket
Jill Walker, said "the Minister for Planning must comply with the Supreme
Court judgment of 24/9/08 (Minister for Planning vs Walker) which requires
a conscientious consideration of Ecologically Sustainable Development
principles in the public interest.  Rezoning a known floodplain is not
ecologically sustainable and is not compatible with the impacts of climate
change."

Helen Wilson of the Cookson Landcare Group, is concerned about the future
health of the heritage-listed Turpentine Forest on the land proposed for
development by Anglican Retirement Villages. “The rezoning allows for
development to completely surround the forest, which will compromise its
long-term natural processes and habitat values.”

In these situations, natural areas are inevitable degraded through
incursions by people and their domestic animals, by removal of the forest
understorey and timber for firewood, and the introduction of weeds through
the dumping of garden waste and the loss of a protective barrier
surrounding the forest.

Secretary of NIRAG John Croker says that this rezoning begs the question,
why is the Government giving Stockland exactly what they had asked for,
when it is over twice the development area than that which was recommended
by the 2003 Commission of Inquiry.


The meeting requests the Premier restore faith in Government to the people
of NSW, and to act on her own recent public statements, to include local
communities into the decision-making processes of her Government.



For further information contact:
Dootch Kennedy 0434 366 374
Alex Peterson 0438 480 484
Helen Wilson 0428 291 211