Gladesville Community Group (Inc) was established after lodgement of a Development Application in 2013 for redevelopment of the Gladesville Shopping ‘Village’ (GS’V’).
We realised that the proposed redevelopment of Gladesville Shopping Village will affect everyone who comes to the Gladesville. We also realised that affected residents, business owners, shoppers, school-parents, and other visitors are not experts – just as we aren’t – and may not know how to participate in the planning and approval processes. Developers and their consultants are paid experts who will profit from the projects, but we community members are ordinary people usually without relevant expertise or knowledge. That is why we have tried to help to inform the local community about what we learn:
* of the facts about the Development Applications and Planning Proposals when lodged,
* about how we can have our views heard – effective participation in the planning approval process, and
* about what the Councils are doing, or not doing to help.
The location of Gladesville Shopping ‘Village’ (GS’V’) within the Local Government Area (LGA) of Hunters Hill Council, means we learnt most about how that Council has:
1) handled the disposal of public land adjacent to the shopping centre without public consultation or tender,
2) delayed until after contracting for disposal the eventual Heritage listing of the timber cottage at 10 Cowell St (inferior to the Heritage listing in the DRAFT Local Environmental Plan 2012 because the eventual listing excludes curtilage – for the first time in Hunters Hill’s history of managing Heritage), and
3) engaged (or not) with the local community at various times since 2008 when the various actions were undertaken to promote the redevelopment.