Month: June 2018

Traffic And Parking At Our Shire Stations

Are commuter traffic and parking key issues for residents in the Pennant Hills District/Hornsby Shire?

In the Australian on 24 February 2018 (‘Sydney and Melbourne the focal point for a nation of commuters’) the demographer Bernard Salt, states that 2016 ABS Census data indicates “that 120,000 workers flow south into the greater Sydney metropolis in the morning, only to return exhausted in the evening.”

Traffic and Parking at our Shire Stations

This is 14,000 commuters more than the estimate made in the 2011 Census, with the number of commuters growing by almost 3,000 a year. These commuters, as well as 7,000 from Newcastle, pass through and perhaps even park in the Shire. Continue reading “Traffic And Parking At Our Shire Stations”

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…