Save Bondi Village in the Sydney Morning Herald

Today the Sydney Morning Herald published an article featuring Save Bondi Village’s Professor Shirley Alexander AM, talking about the challenges proposed ‘one size fits all’ planning policies will create for Bondi.

Aside from Shirley’s comments, what is notable in the article is the comments from Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest, who describes Bondi as ‘frat houses for Irish backpackers’ that is at risk of ‘rot(ting) away on the vine’.

This shows the lack of understanding from developer lobbyists as to why and how Bondi is an a great community and shows their determination to paint a picture of a dilapidated suburb ripe for development, when those of us who live here know better.

As we have said time and time again, we’re not against development. It can make Bondi better, but it needs to be sustainable and that means planning in a way that understands the local context and grows community rather than destroys it. The comments from Tom Forrest simply show that this is exactly what developers are not interested in and that the planning policies they are seeking to push through are not designed with community considerations in mind.

We also note that Tom Forrest is on record as saying “The raison d’être of a developer is…first and foremost to deliver profit for the investors in that enterprise. It’s not our job to deliver benefits for the community.”

So that is exactly what we are fighting here: a community that wants planning policies that consider community and sustainability versus a development lobby that has proven it has no understanding of the local context and no interest in what impact they have on it, as long as they maximise their profits.

SMH subscribers read the article here (paywall)

Non subscribers, try this link