What is a complying development?

What does complying development in the Bayside Council area, or across the State, look like?

The secondary campus of St Mary and St Mina's Coptic Orthodox College is on two house blocks in Alexandra Pde in the dormitory heart of Rockdale. It was set up on the former St George School for Children with Disabilities site (for 25 to 30 pupils) and has about 150 students after 17 years. Last year the Coptic Orthodox Dioceses applied for a Certificate of Complying Development to rebuild the school to accommodate 300 pupils. Complying Developments allow for adding a second storey to an existing school building so long as the learning environment is maintained and advanced.

The school website shows FOUR storeys, an addition of two to the original two storeys; no new parking, no noise remediation. A month into the demolition, little if any of the original school structure has been retained. Rather than a Complying Development, there is an almost new build on the site...approved through the private development system. Residents in surrounding buildings used the few opportunities they were given to object...and were fobbed off by council, NSW Planning and the school board. How does a four-storey building with no green open space and one basketball court fit the lawful use of the site for a school of three hundred teenagers?

Stephen Skinner, Rockdale

Another voice who cares!!! I contacted Bayside Council regarding Bicentennial Pond on 25th February, 12^th and 22nd March and 25th May 2021 to complain about the state of this once pristine waterway. Obviously, to no avail. Walking the perimeter of the pond, you will spot dead ducks and fish, fire extinguishers, plastic bottles and bags and covering the whole waterway is lime green choking weed. It is a total disgrace that the council has done nothing to maintain the watercourse. The outflow drain is not protected with mesh netting as seen in the inner west and harbour system; therefore, the build-up of foreign objects will continue to infiltrate into the pond until this is rectified. Concerned about what little green space we have left in our area and as a ratepayer, I immediately call on the council to fix the Bicentennial pond problem.

Kim Cadogan, Rockdale

Our neighbour's dog barks incessantly when left at home alone. We have spoken to the dog's owners to no avail. I have contacted the council three times and the ranger has visited, but the owners deny that it is their dog (the dog barks when they are not home and if they are not home all day, then the dog barks all day) and the ranger has to believe them. To gain any peace, I have to keep the house closed up to reduce the noise. If anyone has a solution, I would be pleased to hear it.

Gary Sullivan, Sans Souci

Isn't complacency and hesitancy a two-way street, whether for vaccination or quarantine?

One hundred, not ninety-nine point nine per cent non-complacency and hesitancy begins at hotel quarantine, where just 0.01 per cent complacency or hesitancy negates the purpose and need for quarantine altogether.

R Piech, Sans Souci

M6 delays are a disaster for the Shire Traffic and 24/7 clearways should be implemented immediately.

Lee Evans should be demanding through to waterfall and actioned immediately.

Problems that exist now and until the M6 is built to Waterfall start at Brighton 3 lanes south blocked on weekends Traffic is back to the Cooks river often.

Heading north through Brighton, over 25 minutes.

Rocky Point Rd two lanes turn to Ramsgate Rd via Sandringham to one lane; at 11am on Sat it takes 17 minutes should be four. This leg, till the M6 is built, should be a 24/7 clearway.

Traffic on Princes Hwy, President Ave, The Kingsway and the Boulevard Sutherland are congested in peak hours and weekends and converge at Acacia St M1 Sutherland, where the new unfinished road works will heal little if ever completed. President Ave is congested from Acacia St A1 to Kiora Rd Miranda Stand still often taking 25 min. Massive delays from Sutherland to Heathcoat going South and from South of Waterfall heading North.

Do we have to wait another 50 years ?. These problems need to be fixed, clearways now and M6 started to waterfall now.

Tony, Lilli Pilli

Write to the editor at craig.thomson@austcommunitymedia.com.au