A new rule: ask the community first
September 25, 2008
Section: Opinion
From Peter Mair, Windang
Whatever the good intentions of Wollongong Council may be about more effective community engagement, any sign of a more responsive regime is nowhere in sight.
The following is illustrative: a DA for the biggest building in Windang (at 217- 221 Windang Rd, next to the `old post office) is slated for unconditional approval in the face of sensibly strong community opposition.
The story with the DA for the ‘biggest building’ is disturbing in terms of the failure of Council to protect a small vulnerable community from developers working to ‘the rules’ - rules that the Windang community has repeatedly asked Council to amend to preclude the DA now lodged.
What’s worse, proposed changes to the DA rules can be avoided by developers lodging applications in advance, and getting the protection of ‘old rules’ assessments into the future.
Things that perhaps could not happen next year are being encouraged to be proposed ‘this year’ so they can happen next year: this is plainly unsound policy on any criteria.
If anyone is to get the advantage of ‘asking first’ it should be the Windang community.