by Ian Stephenson, President, Bulletin 4/2022, June 2022

In the last month the Society had meetings with the planning staff of the Council of Sydney, and the Lord Mayor Clover Moore, regarding the new Local Environment Plan and Development Control Plan which are due to be completed this year.

The Society also commented on Council’s Community Strategic Plan 2030-2050. Our submission included recommendations that:

  • Transformative Projects should include the rehabilitation of Wentworth Park.
  • The goal of being a leading environmental performer should recognise that existing buildings already embody significant CO₂ emissions, which makes it all the more important to upgrade and refurbish – rather than demolish and rebuild.
  • The plan’s excellent objective that ‘the character of distinctive neighbourhoods and heritage and iconic places valued by communities is protected and preserved’ needs to be supported by the test that ‘the character of distinctive neighbourhoods is protected by effective statutory controls and owners of buildings in heritage conservation zones are assisted with clear guidelines about how to do compatible development’.
  • That cycleways should be safe and access to houses along cycleways be fair and reasonable.
  • Community centres have an important role in fostering resilient and diverse communities. We supported the recommendations of resident groups across the City for improving access to facilities at community centres. To my knowledge no community centre in Glebe is equipped with AV facilities for meetings – rather extraordinary in the 21st

On 25 May, the Blue Wren Subcommittee, our ecology arm, held their annual biodiversity lecture. Professor Dieter Hochuli from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney spoke on ‘how nature survives and thrives in urban environments, and why it matters for the future of our cities’. His talk was full of surprises including the migration south of the harbour by brush turkeys – one intrepid turkey has moved from the north shore to Oatley!

Membership renewals are due soon. I do hope you will renew and encourage your friends to join.

See earlier President’s reports.

At the beginning of 2020, the Glebe Society proposed to City of Sydney that Glebe Town Hall become a Community Centre (see Bulletin 01/2020). In the image above, the solid pink dot shows where the Glebe Town Hall Community Centre would be located in relation to the City of Sydney’s other Community Centres (image: base map: Google maps, annotation by V. Simpson-Young)