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Collapse Issue 457 - 05 Nov 2018Issue 457 - 05 Nov 2018
Collapse  NEWS NEWS
NRMA buys Palm Beach ferry service
Strata committee to sue Ettalong Diggers
Street flags designed to 'bring Ettalong back to life'
Service station may open by February despite changes
Council staff to decide future of Woy Woy kiosk
Students collect 420 kilograms of rubbish
Chair named for Waterways Committee
Dredged sand returns to channel, says new owner
Unit owners denied access to Diggers' roof
Woytopia in Umina replaces cancelled festival
Armistice Day service at surf club
Amended plans draw 18 more objections
Three-storey block of flats proposed in Blackwall Rd
Three dwellings proposed for Ettalong block
Seven-unit proposal approved despite non-compliance
Construction certificate issued for five-unit development
Greens announce Robertson candidate
Community services directory for Peninsula residents
Revised book launched at commemorative weekend
Workshop looks at reducing household waste
Council promotes buying from opportunity shops
PCYC to hold book fair
Backpack program for the homeless
Youth charity ball success
Counselling offered for racing carnival
Graffiti cleaned up despite rain
Petition has 6700 signatures opposing coal mine
New veterinary hospital opens
Collapse  FORUM FORUM
Housing policy should be for us all
Housing policy would create a ghetto
Proposal to increase Woy Woy density is appalling
Character Statements not worth paper they're printed on
Planning map does not show lot consolidation
Focus on the biggest R: the Residents
Invite Japanese to build bridge to Barrenjoey Head
NRMA purchase a blessing
Behind the beach
Civic facilities needed for socially-aware community
Boat policy was misguided from the start
Collapse  HEALTH HEALTH
Three procedure carts bought with gold coin donations
Collapse  ARTS ARTS
Peninsula Village choir holds annual concert
Art and craft fair opens on
Collapse  EDUCATION EDUCATION
Students hear rare toadlet
School prepares for Smithy musical
Uniform change at Woy Woy South
Ettalong holds trivia night
Chicken pox cases confirmed
Woy Woy plans for next year
Concert and training bands both perform at festival
Volunteers wanted for ethics classes
Woy Woy holds farewell
Students attend Invictus Games
Grant enables gym program at Pretty Beach
Headstart program orients new kindy students
Free course on Moving into the Teens Years.
Excursion with 80 students to Olympic Park
Eliminated in State semi-finals
Collapse  SPORT SPORT
Joint teams to be fielded in junior rugby league
Southern Spirit defeated by Northern Power
Jemma named Youth Athlete of Year for third time
Umina surf club hosts first round of series
Honoured with life membership
Mingaletta wins medals in Koori Mini Olympics
Medals at pool rescue championships
Roosters hold presentation night
Pro-Am golf tournament at Everglades

Housing policy should be for us all

A short while ago, Central Coast Council announced a two-year project to plan the redevelopment of Woy Woy Town Centre.

Now, out of the blue and without any evidence or justification, a proposal appears to alter the whole face of Woy Woy through: "the active creation of affordable and alternative housing through direct funding, partnerships and innovative models of housing and service delivery."

However, from this mountain of bombast emerges the mouse of a few marginal changes to the zoning provisions, designed to increase developer profits by increasing densities, raising heights and reducing the requirements for parking, but with imperceptible relationship to the supposed goals of the changes.

Where is the overall framework for these proposals?

What is the civic goal to be achieved by these changes?

Where are the considerations of environmental impact?

Without some vision of the end-result, we shall just have more lumpy apartment blocks jammed onto existing lots (no doubt, with variations to the code required to meet the expediencies of each lot) and haphazard provision of supporting commercial and access facilities.

There is an opportunity to make something fresh of Woy Woy, but this is certainly not the way to go about it.

The Council is obsessed with building-height restrictions, although, in reality, the height of an individual building is unimportant, if it is properly designed and properly related to the urban landscape it inhabits.

Yet Council prefers the blunt instrument of setback and coverage standards which have no rational basis and have produced most of the unsightly development that we see around the city.

We can expect the same result of these changes in Woy Woy.

As for some of the other provisions, it is mind-boggling that the Council considers a ratio of 0.2 cars per unit appropriate for a boarding house.

I have lived in a boarding house, and every single resident had a car.

What research has the Council done to conclude that four-fifths of boarding-house residents will not own a car or have visitors with cars?

Furthermore, as Peninsula Chamber of Commerce president Matthew Wales, has pointed out, the traffic arrangements of the Woy Woy Town Centre are totally unsatisfactory at the moment, but nothing seems to be suggested for dealing with this crucial aspect of the Centre's future.

Where is the analysis of car, bus, bicycle, truck and pedestrian movements within this soon to be densified precinct?

How will access to the railway station be enhanced?

How does utilization of the Woy Woy Wharf fit into this non-grand scheme of things?

To describe this proposal as half-baked would be an overstatement.

It is quarter-baked at best.

As for the ostensible benefits of the changes, does anyone seriously believe that the proposed measures will make housing affordable for low-income households?

The ideas propounded have been floating around for decades, with a record of almost total, unrelieved failure, and, even if we were naive enough to believe that the Council would follow through, with imagination and energy, the implementation of the ideas set forth, the results would have a negligible impact on the overall housing conditions of low-income and disadvantaged citizens.

This is little more than a feel-good approach to the problem.

It is appropriate for the city to have a housing policy, but it should be a comprehensive housing policy for all social and income cohorts, not a paternalistic (and largely futile) effort to single out the deserving poor, without taking into account the full context of all the city's future needs.





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