IN the interests of AUSTRALIA … And Our Heritage, Culture, Urban Bushlands, Neighbourhood Character and Our Communities … what we have left of our Heritage Estates must be preserved … protected from inappropriate development!
THIS article reveals the lengths that some ‘awfulizers’ will go to …
IN view of Clrs Kim and Zhou having broken ranks with the Labor Party on this crucial issue … the way forward has been paved for Clr Trenton Brown to vote for the Pro-Heritage Policy as proposed by Mayor Jerome Laxale!
–‘the rot set in’ during the terms of Mayors, Artin Etmekdijian and Colonel Bill Pickering
DO the anti-policy protaganists demonstrate any ethics or morals whatsoever?
WHEN …
-they abuse council staff and have flooded Council with a tsunami of emails; yet demand responses
-they allege it is their right to sell out to a ‘cashed-up’ * property developer
-ignore the community rights of the Heritage Home Neighbours; to devalue their Heritage homes with inappropriate development; and rob them of their amenity
*Would that be ‘Black Money’ awash in Australian Real Estate since the FIRB ruling allowed developers to sell ‘new homes’ overseas particularly in China?
-black money is awash because the second tranche of the AML Legislation has been shelved for more than 12 years
–the Morrison Government exempted the Real Estate Gatekeepers from Anti-money Laundering Laws in October 2018 (the second tranche AML Legislation)
AND the NSW Liberal Coalition Planning Law Changes for higher density residential development have facilitated not only big developers but the ‘family developer’ to ‘landbank’ our streets!
RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Australian Heritage … Threatened by Overseas Ascendancy … Clashes and Eviction at Ryde Council’
View photos of some Heritage Homes under threat and also examples of inappropriate development across Ryde!
ONE COUNCILLOR MAY DECIDE THE FATE OF ‘HERITAGE HOMES’
THE CRUCIAL VOTE of one councillor could decide the fate of the most controversial policy to have ever come before the City of Ryde Council.
With the council apparently deadlocked over the proposed heritage listing policy, Liberal Clr Trenton Brown has until the December 10 council meeting to decide whether he will break ranks with his own party and vote for the policy as proposed by Mayor Jerome Laxale and his Labor team and backed by conservative voters in heritage dominated streets in Eastwood and Denistone.
*Labor Clr Dr Peter Kim has broken ranks with his own party and has spoken against the policy alongside Independent Clr Simon Zhou.
Should Councillors vote in support of positions they’ve adopted at previous council meetings, Clr Brown’s vote with the casting vote of Mayor Laxale could decide the issue.
‘And it could decide the issue once and for all because I will not subject staff to the kind of abuse they have received on this issue ever again,’ Mayor Laxale said.
‘We’ve already lost 20 per cent of our heritage homes to property developers and if councillors want to do something to save heritage homes and protect communities from inappropriate development they will have this one chance to do it and only this one chance.’
Trenton Brown has a strong, personal love of heritage homes and significantly he did not join Clr Kim, Clr Zhou and Clr Jordan Lane (Lib) to stand and applaud anti-policy speakers at last Tuesday night’s council meeting.
He even copped criticism from anti-policy supporter Qian Wang for not responding to her emails.
‘These anti-policy supporters have created a tsunami of emails,’ Clr Brown said.
‘These people do not understand the policy and when you do not understand something you have fear.’
Councillor Brown is also sceptical about claims from both sides that they represent the silent majority of ratepayers and he backed research by the newspaper which has found some of the so-called ‘statistical surveys’ by anti-policy supporters to be way off the mark.
‘I think the case is that most residents do not know about the policy or what it is trying to achieve.’
What he will concede is that the council has inherited ‘a poisoned challice’ from the regimes of former Mayors Artin Etmekdijian and Colonel Bill Pickering who were strongly opposed to a council role in heritage home protection.
Letters to ratepayers in 2010 told them their homes would never be heritage listed.
‘I do not support what Bill Pickering did, these letters have no currency in my mind, none at all.’
Mayor Laxale has even gone as far as to question whether or not these letters are legal.
‘They are certainly open for challenge in the Land and Environment Court’, the Mayor said.
One possible outcome is that Clr Brown will vote against the line taken by the Liberal team and support the heritage policy, albeit with his own amendments.
He revealed to the Weekly Times that he is studying similar policies in other council areas, particularly neighbouring Hunters Hill.
The problem he faces is that both sides of the issue have made the debate a moral and ethical one.
Anti-policy supporters say they are defending ‘the rights’ of a home owner to have the sole and only say on a home they own.
If that means getting a good price for selling a heritage home to a cashed up property developer to knock down, then so be it.
‘This (proposed) heritage policy is violating home owners’ rights. Heritage is just crap hitting the fan,’ resident Jian Wang told Tuesday night’s council meeting.
Pro-Heritage supporters argue that the destruction of heritage homes in heritage streets lowers the price on heritage homes in the entire street and will destroy the character of a heritage suburb.
They say most property speculators do not live in the area and regard heritage homes as no more than plastic pieces on a Monopoly board.
It maybe these words of one Denistone resident that will ultimately influence Clr Brown’s vote.
‘I have very happy memories here of the connections I made here and how my children have found a home in this safe, friendly and beautiful neighbourhood,‘ Janelle Ingham told the council meeting.
We don’t look at our home as how much money we could make from it in five years time because this is our community and you can’t put a price on that.
‘Yet we are seeing an erosion of community and we are protecting our community.’
SOURCE: The Weekly Times (RYDE) 4 December 2019
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