Council – Pennant Hills District Civic Trust

Hornsby Council 2020-2022 Delivery Program

The draft 2020-2022 Delivery Program including the Operational Plan 2020/21 outlines the Services, Key Initiatives and Capital Projects Council has planned to move towards the community vision in the Community Strategic Plan. The Annual Budget and other financial details including Council’s resourcing information, information on rating and domestic waste management are also included.

The Trust has made a submission, covering the focus areas of Liveability, Sustainability, Productivity and Collaboration.

We have contributed suggestions regarding Water management, Waste management, a Place Plan for Pennant Hills, business viability, tree canopy, traffic and more.

You can read the submission here.

Want to contribute to future submissions? Join the Trust, for only $20 a year per household.

Improving Pennant Hills CBD

Pennant Hills CBD – Proposed 40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area (HPAA) and Public Domain Improvements

Council, in partnership with Transport for NSW, has identified Pennant Hills CBD as a location that requires traffic improvements to ensure the safety of pedestrians. These works will also incorporate tree plantings which will provide the benefits of cooler places and improved street appeal.

The proposed treatment is aimed at improving pedestrian amenity by providing a self-enforcing low speed environment consisting of the following devices:

40km/h High Pedestrian Activity Area in parts of Yarrara Road, Shields Lane, Ramsay Road, Hillcrest Road, Fisher Avenue and Railway Parade
Raised Threshold Entries with landscaped blister islands in Yarrara Road, Ramsay Road, Hillcrest Road and Fisher Avenue
Median traffic island in Yarrara Road at Hillcrest Road
Pedestrian refuge islands in Ramsay Road
Landscaped kerb blister islands in Hillcrest Road
Pedestrian refuge islands in Fisher Avenue near Pennant Hills Road
Associated pavement delineation and traffic signs

More information on the proposed intersection improvements can be found on Hornsby Council’s website, see this link. Detailed plans are available here.

Hornsby Council is investing approximately $650’000 in this project, which comes from NSW Government grant which was received last year.

The Civic Trust supports the proposal in principle, with minor amendments, and we are liaising with Council traffic safety engineers. The proposal will improve the road safety of pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers in the Pennant Hills Town Centre, which will likely improve the amenity.

Hornsby Council is inviting your feedback on this proposal, until March 4th, 2020. So go on, and have your say!

HSC February update for Pennant Hills

At the beginning of each year Hornsby Council’s Agenda Item 1 is the Performance Report for 2018. For those who don’t have the time here is a summary.

Pennant Hills is one community in a shire of several suburbs and reading the report was most interesting for what was present and absent in relation to Pennant Hills. Here is a summary of some of the information in Item 1 for the council meeting on February 13, 2019.

Improving Hornsby Shire Council’s DA Submission and Approval Process

HSC Councillor Emma Heyde wrote on facebook on 21/6/2018

Not many things are more stressful than something being built next door that you object to. Council has often been criticised for making the situation worse. But changes are in the pipeline. See what you think …

A senior planner will now be on the desk when DAs are first lodged to make sure that DAs that are erroneous, incomplete or misleading are returned.
A new team with staff from Compliance, Trees, Natural Resources, Engineering and Planning will review incoming DAs.
DAs that are determined by staff (and not the new Independent Panel because they did not get ten objections) but which are still very contentious may be decided by a new Determination Panel made up of Council staff.
All DAs determined by staff will need to be signed off my a Senior Planning Officer.
DA guidelines will now require details about any imported fill to be used on a site, and include a construction traffic management plan.
All environmental compliance matters will now be investigated by the Compliance team, rather than planners.
Staff will more quickly identify and investigate cases where there are complaints from multiple sources.
Council is looking at the workload of the Compliance team and comparing it with other councils to see whether they need more staff.
PLUS– check out the new DA tracking system. You can see every DA in your suburb lodged in the last six months, and everything that has been approved or refused here: http://hscenquiry.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/…/OutstandingApplicati…

Civic Trust members meet local Councillors

Members of the Pennant Hills District Civic Trust met with the mayor of Hornsby Shire, Philip Ruddock in late February.

[Photo] Hornsby Mayor Phillips Ruddock, Councillor Emma Heyde, and Trust members Noel Oxley and Norman Parris — Hornsby Mayor Phillip Ruddock, Councillor Emma Heyde, and Trust members Noel Oxley and Norman Parris

The Trust had one agenda item only, -the next steps in developing the Pennant Hills Town Centre Plan – although we were also there to listen to what Council had to say. The Trust’s ideas for this had already been flagged in our article published in the March issue of The Monthly Chronicle. We also circulated the article to our members via Gmail and Hornsby Shire Councillors. Continue reading

Civic Trust members meet local Member Matt Kean

The PHDCT recently met with our State member, Matt Kean to talk about some of the issues affecting Pennant Hills. Our primary concern involves the need for an updated Plan for our local area which recognises the unique character of Pennant Hills, preserves the best features of our community and green environments and provides a vision of how Pennant Hills should be improved to cater for additional residents and a wider mix of housing styles.

Matt is aware of the push back across Sydney to perceptions of over development and advised us that there would be no new housing targets in Hornsby Shire until after next state election ( March 2019). Our Council is intending that any new housing targets will be met from Hornsby CBD redevelopment.

Matt and our Council are working together to find a solution to the financial impacts the 2017 council amalgamation boundary changes had on Hornsby. It’s a complex issue but in Matt Kean and Philip Ruddock we have some skilled politicians on our side.

You will have seen in our recent emails the discussion of opportunities for an exciting new bike track from Pennant Hills to Epping. As a keen bike rider, Matt supports this initiative and is on side for the difficult discussions which need to be held with Transport for NSW in overcoming the safety issues they see in community using the rail corridor land. Again we are fortunate in having support from Matt, Philip Ruddock and Epping State MLA Damien Tudehope.

As a new resident of Pennant Hills, Matt is getting a better understanding of the traffic, parking and transport interchange issues of Pennant Hills.

We agreed to continue meeting on a regular basis so we can work together to make Pennant Hills a better place to live, work and play.
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Development planning

Land Use Planning and Development Control.

The Issue – It is one thing to get excited about specific development applications, but it is another thing to monitor the total planning system and participate in its evolution.

Participation can be at a number of levels:

1. The Local Environmental Plan (LEP) and Development Control Plan (DCP) level.

Each local government (Council) area has a LEP to control land usage and what can be built where within the Council area. LEPs are prepared by local Councils, in consultation with their community and approved by the Minister for Planning. Continue reading “Development planning”