Closure of Canberra Avenue Council Meeting 19 October 2023
This the most difficult decision I have been asked to make during this term of Council.
After an objective assessment of as much of the available information I have absorbed, I have come to the conclusion that the benefits of closing Canberra Avenue outweigh those of keeping it open, in line with the recommendations of Council staff. My assessment has been framed through the prism of what would be the best outcome for existing and future residents and the surrounding areas.
For a long time I was trying to anticipate whether new residents would prefer a park over a road, something at this time I cannot know. But I just recently realised that trying to answer that question was the wrong approach. Future residents will choose where to make their home themselves based on a host of reasons such as access to shopping centres, libraries, health and education, road access, public transport and open space amenity and more. The question I ended up asking myself is What can I do to make the area the most attractive place for exisiting and future residents to choose to make their home?
I was always searching, for more than just the simple exchange of a road for more park space. The St Leonards South Facilities Matrix highlighted the future possibilities in an expanded Newlands Park, noting the current parks apparent under-utilisation. Elements such as adventure, children’s and informal play equipment, BBQ’s, picnic tables, seating, bike racks, litter bins, drinking fountains, open lawn, shade trees, rain gardens/biowares, bushland). This is an enormous opportunity for a larger, higher quality park.
The greater Lane Cove community demands more open space which I share. With limited available space already, opportunities like this do not appear too often.
I acknowledge that a clear majority of those surveyed surrounding Canberra Ave and Newlands Park indicated a preference to keep Canberra Ave open. However, survey results are not the sole determining factor into arriving at a decision, plebiscites are reserved for that. Councillors are required after objectively assessing all of the available information make decisions in what they believe are in best interests of the greater community.
I have also considered the closure in terms of honouring the Strategic Vision for the St Leonards South Precinct. The precinct is not isolated and it will share infrastructure with its surrounding areas.
I recognise that the partial closure of Canberra Avenue will place additional demands on Duntroon Ave, but also accept the Bitzos modelling conclusion that there would be no significant impact to the surrounding road network. No modelling is perfect, and the challenge here is not being able to obtain timely meaningful data from a road with minimal activity while construction is underway and until residents have moved in. However, I do acknowledge that there are differing external to Council opinions on the data set, assumptions and methodologies.
To address traffic congestion, which is the primary concern at this time of many local residents we need to reduce the quantity of vehicles on the road. This can be done by encouraging residents, particularly around prominent transport hubs, to use other forms of movement such as Public Transport, or to walk or ride. This alone will not solve the issues of traffic congestion, it needs to be part of a suite of policies to reduce vehicles.
The St Leonards South will not be an isolated precinct. I don’t accept that the partial closure of Canberra Ave to expand Newlands Park not being part of the original St Leonards Plan does not exclude it from consideration. With 1974 units in total proposed in the precinct at this time, the demand for open/recreational park space will be high, even with the existing proposed amenity. The original Masterplan was criticised for not containing enough green open space so this a great opportunity to improve the provision of open space amenity.
Council has a great track record on delivering quality projects that the community loves and enjoys, such as The Canopy, and Wadanggari Park, even withstanding some opposition before completion.
With the partial closure of Canberra Ave, we can build a wonderful expanded park that exisiting and future residents will come to love and want to use.