More than 50 local residents came together to enjoy the former Oatley Bowling Club site last Sunday for a pop up picnic and a peaceful protest against plans for a nine-storey development on the site.
Georges River Council has recently released plans for the development of the bowling club site.
“These documents came from a closed session Hurstville Council meeting in 2014,” Oatley resident Melissa Derwent said.
“For the site to be financially viable is for an up to nine-storey seniors living tower, with 80 apartments and 12 residential townhouses surrounding the tower.
“’This is vastly different from the two storey aged care facilities the community was told in 2009,” she said.
“In 1944 Myles Dunphy, Oatley resident and the ‘father of conservation in NSW’ approached Hurstville Council to create a park in Oatley and it included the area that the bowling club site is on.
“The land has always been part of the Myles Dunphy Bushland Reserve since it was gazetted in 1960.’’
Georges River Council administrator John Rayner has said the Oatley Club site is “adjacent” to the reserve and had been identified under the former Hurstville Council’s Community strategic plan for aged care.
Residents say that the site is not adjacent to Myles Dunphy Reserve but is part of it, quoting Hurstville Council’s lawyers confirming in 2010 that ‘‘the reserve comprises an area of bushland, a scout hall and the site of the former Oatley Bowling Club’’.
Greens NSW spokesman for planning, David Shoebridge has written to Mr Rayner supporting the local community objections.
The online petition had more than 360 signatures by last Monday.
It says, in part, “I object to the reclassification, rezoning and sale of the old Oatley Bowling Club at a time when development is significantly increasing the number of residents in the council area and the surrounding region.
“I also object that an unelected administrator should expedite the sale of local open space and approve a form and scale of development which is strongly objected to by the local community.’’
The petition is at: https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-subdivision-of-myles-dunphy-reserve-oatley-by-georges-river-council.