Councillor Chris Harris

In the last five years the Labor government has received over $7 million in donations from developers and construction companies. The Liberal party got in excess of $4 million, and half of Clover Moore’s campaign funding to become Lord Mayor of Sydney was courtesy of
Living City Ltd, a large part of whose funds came from developer donations. The Lord Mayor also received a $1500 donation from local property developer C&A Haralambis.

“Only the Greens do not take political donations from developers. The LibLabs feed off them. But nothing comes without its price,” said Chris Harris.

“You only have to look at Minister Sartor’s approval of the Carlton United Brewery site to see how it works. The CUB development is going to have 11 blocks of apartments housing 2,800 residents, 4,800 workers, parking for 2,320 cars, towers up to 120 metres high, and around 500 apartments that could have little or no natural light. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite a clear direction from the Governor that the City would be divided into wards before the next council election in 2008, it has become a matter for Council’s discretion according to advice sought from the Department of Local Government.

Even if council decided to introduce wards, it would be unlikely to occur before the 2012 election because it would require a constitutional referendum, according to the advice.

“This is a crucial issue for voters in the City of Sydney, and Clover Moore needs to decide one way or the other as soon as possible,’ said Chris Harris, Deputy Lord Mayor and Greens candidate for Sydney.

“First it was precinct committees that seem to have dropped off the agenda, and now it’s a ward system that is under question.

“These are fundamental issues of local democracy and the real test of how representative this council actually is under Ms Moore,” he said.

The issue goes back to the 2004 Proclamation which amalgamated the City of Sydney with the former South Sydney Council and parts of Leichhardt. Read the rest of this entry »

To nobody’s surprise, Planning Minister Frank Sartor last weekend approved the concept plan for the Carlton-United Brewery site in Chippendale.

Bitterly opposed by the local community, the $800 million high-rise development will treble the population of the small suburb. While most agree Sydney needs more housing stock, critics of this project say it is rampant overdevelopment, designed not for quality of life and environment but for the profits of big developers.

There will be 1,690 apartments over 11 blocks. The tallest tower, eye-to-eye with the reviled UTS tower, will match it at 120 metres.

These apartments will house up to 2,800 residents. In addition there will be up to 4,800 workers each day occupying the commercial spaces. That’s 7,600 people, equal to several small towns.

The development will be so tall and dense that most of the open space will be sunless in mid-winter. Tall buildings generate wind tunnels in the canyons they create, so it is likely that outdoor living will be impractical in winter.

Even the showpiece park in the site’s centre will be 80% in shade by 2pm in mid-winter (see picture), while in many of the blocks, 40% of apartments will receive little or no direct sunlight.

Then there is parking and traffic. This supposedly environmentally sensitive project will host 2,320 parking spots. Now, only four out of ten dwellings in Chippendale own a car. An independent study for City of Sydney recommended a ratio of .57 spots per apartment, recognising the site is public-transport-rich.

But even before Frank Sartor grabbed planning control of the site, the Central Sydney Planning Committee doubled that ratio (with, interestingly, the support of Clover Moore).

That’s when I resigned in disgust from the Committee. Read the rest of this entry »

Residents of City North are up in arms about government plans for East Darling Harbour, AKA The Hungry Mile or ‘Barangaroo’ as it is to be called.

“Kent Street residents are angry that the Concept Plan exhibited late last year seemed to have taken a course of steroids as many of the buildings had become larger and taller than those shown in the Design Competition winning entry,” said Chris Harris.

“This means many residents would lose much of their western views and afternoon winter sun.”

Tall buildings on the southern end of the precinct particularly appear to flout the guidelines of the Central Sydney Plan which sensibly calls for a stepping down of building heights from the central ridgeline to the waterfront. Read the rest of this entry »

Even as Premier Morris Iemma struts the media stage spruiking his government’s newly greened image, a careful reading of our new State Plan shows it to be little more than a well-spun apology for roads and the coal industry. If you care about mitigating climate change, it is a disaster.

And yet, encouragingly, the plan targets a 60% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2050. What could be wrong with that?

Unfortunately they are just empty words.

For a start, look at the transport strategy.

It aims to ‘curb growth in transport emissions while maximising transport choice’. In other words, this government is planning to INCREASE transport emissions, which already make up 14% of existing emissions.

‘Maximising transport choice’ translates to upgrading roads at the expense of rail, condemning NSW to a truck and car-based transport future.

The Draft Plan had prioritised an increase in the proportion of freight moved by rail compared to road. This priority has been dropped in the final version which curiously offers a few rather puzzling excuses — that regional areas had shown ‘confusion’ about this during consultation, and it was mainly the web-based responses that favoured it. Huh?

Instead, the plan offers almost laughable solutions like encouraging businesses to transport their road freight out of peak hours to relieve congestion. ‘Sorry about that delivery you need, madam, but Mr Iemma wants us to leave it in the warehouse until 10am.’ As if!

The Greens would have liked to see a transport priority framed more like this: ’significantly reduce transport emissions through moving more freight by rail and providing effective public transport and cycling options to as many people as possible.’

The plan does not even mention cycling, although there is a feelgood picture of a cyclist in the chapter on health and obesity.

On public transport, the plan targets a woeful three percent shift from cars to PT in ten years’ time. Compare this to Strasbourg which has achieved a 56 percent shift in the past ten years!

These figures reveal the truth behind the state’s much-vaunted rail system upgrades — welcome as they are, they amount to little more than a catch-up following decades of neglect. Read the rest of this entry »