The turnout for a weekend street meeting to protest at the level of development in Sutherland Shire was labelled "disappointing" on a Facebook page, which promoted the event.
About 90 people, including mayor Carmelo Pesce, several other councillors and state election candidates - although none of the Liberals - attended the meeting in Kurrajong Street, Sutherland, where two developments are being opposed by residents.
The moderator of the Save Our Shire Facebook page wrote, "The numbers were disappointing as, on our post advertising this meeting, there were over 4200 viewers.
"Until residents get serious and demand change in very large numbers, nothing will happen".
The post said the amount of work the two organisers of the meeting put into researching information about planning rules was "overwhelming".
"Affected residents gave a poignant address about the effect that the developments will have on their lives," the post said.
"Unfortunately, there have been numerous similar developments all over the shire with no support for residents from Sutherland Council. Their fears are well founded.
"Election candidates spoke last, and they all received applause from the gathering.
"No councillors took the stage, even though they probably knew more about the 'process' than anyone else there.
"A serious omission from the day, as a round up of the mood of the meeting, was the lack of a motion to propose the next step.
"It would be a great pity if nothing further eventuated."
Residents in the R2 low density housing zone in Kurrajong Street are opposing two development applications (DAs) for town house-villa projects, containing a total of 16 units.
Andrew Mathas, one of the organisers, said the meeting emphasised the DAs were "symptoms of a shire-wide and, in fact, Sydney-wide problem caused by the state government's push for development".
Mr Mathas said, when the organisers contacted councillors to protest against the scale of the developments, including underground parking, they were told there was nothing they could do because the state government had removed their planning approval powers.
"The main theme of the meeting was that the current push for development benefits only the developers, and not the residents around the developments or even those who buy the new units," he said.
Those who attended the meeting were asked to sign an online petition for a Sydney-wide campaign against overdevelopment, and "to send a strong message" to all state election candidates.
Petition: https://bit.ly/2U9HlCP
