Ingleside landowners’ plan opposed

BY JOHN MORCOMBE
23/2/12

PITTWATER Council may have dashed the hopes of 18 landowners at Ingleside who want to build 721 seniors dwellings, an aged care facility, a medical centre, shops and child care centre on 27ha they own.

Only Serbian Orthodox Church of St Sava would remain in the area if the plan went ahead.

Residents of the Wilga-Wilson area, bounded by Wilga St, Powder Works Rd, Wilson Ave and Monash Country Club, have made application to the state planning department for a site compatibility certificate for a seniors living development and have asked it to accept it as a landowner-nominated site for housing.

Late last year the state government invited owners of large land holdings to have their land considered for housing development.

But the Wilga-Wilson area is part of the larger Ingleside land release area being investigated by the council and the state government and is zoned non-urban land.

The council has written to the department, urging it to reject both applications.

And while sympathising with the owners’ wish to capitalise on their land, which has been locked in a planning limbo for more than two decades, on Monday the councillors unanimously endorsed the letters written to the department by the council’s planning director, Steve Evans.

He said that to develop the Wilga-Wilson area without the necessary infrastructure or transport would contravene orderly planning and development of the area, create a precedent for other areas at Ingleside to be developed separately and rob the community of vital section 94 develop levies.

He also said the council was on schedule to meet the target of 4600 new dwellings by 2031 imposed on it by the government.

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