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| March 16, 2012 |
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Newsletter
for
Offshore Residents
of Pittwater, Australia
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Offshore
Residents' Community Forum
Have Your Say - Church Point Carpark (Precinct 1) Sunday March 18 from 4-6pm - Scotland Island Hall This Community Forum is an opportunity for all Offshore residents to ask questions or comment on the two Options for parking presented in the Survey of Scotland Island and Western Foreshore Households regarding Church Point Plan of Management (Precinct 1). There will be 2 speakers presenting information about these Options: one on the ground level only option and the other on the two level decked option. Following this presentation there will be time for everyone to participate in the discussion. The Forum goes for 2 hours and questions or comments will be limited to 5 minutes per person so that everyone has a chance to speak and answers can be provided. Mark Eriksson, Landscape Architect from Pittwater Council will be present to answer questions or comments from the audience. Please note that no decisions are being made at this Forum, rather it is an opportunity for everyone to voice their concerns and/or ask questions and have a respectful conversation. Come along and participate in the discussion!  Click image to load Flyer
Pittwater Offshore Wine Syndicate  At last! The tasting notes and the price list for our next tasting on April 1st. No fooling! Passing my expert eye over the notes (and the prices) leads me to want to order all of them, but sensibility has cut in, my wallet is thin and my manager is looking darkly.... Winter is traditionally a time of roasted meats and full wines, so take a special look at the Ballast Stone Shiraz - sure to be fabulous! So: The tasting is to be held on Sunday April 1st from 3pm at the cellars, I mean home, of Julian and Nathalie Muir, 58 (Lot 172) Richard Road. If you are new to our tastings, the map below will show you the Muir residence.  The list of wines and the tasting notes can be accessed by clicking HERE Bring a tasting glass, some food to share and a good friend. In the meantime, please remember to make a note in your diary, ask your neighbours and friends to keep the date in mind and clear out your cellar ready for the next offering from the Wine Syndicate! If you want further information, you could ring: George Gaal 9979 9141 Alan Gaines 9979 2070 Julian Muir 9999 4449 <- Tasting to be held here Paul Purvis 9979 9667 Greg Roberts 9979 5228 And You can invite your neighbours by suggesting they visit pittwaterwine.net46.net where they can sign up to receive our quarterly 'notice of tasting' Pink Water Taxis for Offshore Functions Do you have a larger-than-usual function coming up? Maybe an 18th or 21st Birthday Party, Engagement Party or Wedding Reception? Definitely don't have enough floor-space for them all to stay the night? We would welcome an opportunity to discuss how we might be of assistance. Given a heads-up, we can organise to cover one-off events, particularly for the locals. An extra boat or some hours after midnight are achievable with a bit of notice. If it happens to be neither efficient nor cost-effective for one type of vessel to do everything, we happily work alongside the local ferries and charter vessels (L.DUCK, AMELIA K., RELIANCE and BANKSIA) to provide what you need. For Functions and Charter bookings, please email rod@pinkwatertaxis.com.au with your queries or call Rod on 0404 47 47 43. Yours aye - Pink Water Taxis Scotland Island Community Garden On Sunday March the 12th Peter Ruderford the “Garden Guru” form Kimbriki ECO House and Garden Centre ran a fantastic workshop on Scotland Island. The workshop was sponsored by Pittwater Council who kindly donated a free compost bin to this fabulous project. The workshop was full of information on how to start a home compost and also looked at the benefits and rewards of organic gardenning. Scoltand Island is in the process of starting a Community Garden and it’s all very exciting. This give’s us a place to grow fresh organic food and be apart of a group of people who can come together and share ideas and enjoy a community space. Max Peet who runs the beautiful water colour painting classes on the Island has kindly donated part of his back yard for the community garden project. Peter Ruderford has inspected the space and thinks the existing soil is great. So far we have had great interest from the community but we need more hands on deck. Currently we are meeting at the community garden site at 4.30 to 6pm Friday afternoons. Every body is welcome. If you would like to be involved in this wonderful opportunity please come along or for more information call Tamie 0402 583 230 Letters to the Editor Church Point Car Parking Options Survey I just opened this email and went to the Survey Monkey. I do not feel it is appropriate to complete it at this time. The Council/SIRA are asking folks to make some very important decisions and given two options from which to decide. I couldn't get past the first question as I was unwilling to choose between a 1 vs. 2 storey car park. As written the survey presents a misleading and incorrect bivariate option. There are more than these two choices and the survey taker cannot proceed without choosing one of them. If I could I would choose "neither" or "do nothing right now, I'm just fine," or "how about some real information with which I can make a decision?", or "let's grab some other spaces by redesigning what we've got." I, for one, am not willing to make any decisions until I know what current and projected demand are and where those numbers come from. From my point of view, the parking fee has improved the parking situation enormously and I am perfectly willing to live with the status quo for now. I talk regularly with many folks that live offshore, and most of them feel that there have been enormous strides in alleviating congestion since the fee was imposed. However, I don't talk to everyone and am sure that there are folks out there who are less than satisfied. Who are they? I can imagine that shift workers really struggle— are there more clever and less expensive ways to accommodate their situation? Have we mitigated the problem to the extent that we are primarily stressed on weekends and holidays? How much do we reasonably expect demand to rise? What are the changing demographics of the island? Some households may expect their demand to expand (children learning to drive/getting jobs, taking on house mates), while others may expect their demand to contract (children moving away and establishing independent lives, downsizing, etc). How many folks use their homes full time vs how many use only on weekends/holidays? Will this remain the same or change? What sorts of commercial enterprises are there on the island, how many are licensed for what they do, what sorts of demands on parking do they create? The arguments for and against contain no data regarding current or predicted demand. How can we make decisions without having this information? I do hope that this sort of information is what is provided during the information session and I strongly advise that no one fill in the survey until we have the facts in hand. Yours, Betsi Beem RE the proposed Church Point Car park. To the Editor, I believe Church Points’ vista to be one of Pittwaters’ true gems. This historic precinct has sat virtually undisturbed for generations, free from high rise or overt beachfront development. I feel we need to be very careful about what decisions are made concerning this beautiful piece of Pittwater waterfront. When the residents, supported by Pittwater Council fought for Currawong the fight was about conserving our waterfront, about what it looks like, about what it will look like in the future. They aren’t going to be making any more of it! When people arrive at Church Point they all appreciate the sleepy unspoiled beauty of the place. They come to get away from the concrete jungle Sydney has in part become. They come to admire the vista, not our car parks, the coastline, not the infill. The view from the water is also uncomplicated and welcoming, a two story floodlit concrete car park will destroy the historic beauty of the area from both the shore and the water. Pittwater is not Darling Harbour and shouldn’t be treated like it…it’s different up here, smaller in scale, slower in pace. The changes that are about to be made are made forever. I feel we need to be very careful that we don’t make the wrong decisions just for convenience sake, just for the sake of parking some cars. Is that the most important thing to consider in this instance? To build an oversize car park would show a disregard for what many of us believe Pittwater to be, a special place, a different place, a unique place. Not a place of oversize, concrete, two story, waterfront carparks. Like the saving of Currawong, once again it comes down to legacy, by doing this, are we making Pittwater a more beautiful and better place for the generations to come? Or is there another way? At the very least we need to give this development a very great deal of insightful consideration. Yours Faithfully, Shane Withington. Carpark Survey? - Think before you click … from Jenny Cullen Church Point is a special place
The proposed two-storey carpark would be a large, concrete parking station approximately 100m long plus ramps x 18m deep x 3.7m high. You can’t hide this! Would you want a two-level carpark outside your home? How can we claim to be environmentally responsible people who love the natural beauty of this area and also spoil it with a big two-level carpark? How sure are we about costs? The Church Point Plan of Management is the biggest development project ever undertaken by Pittwater Council. We all know that costs often blow out on big projects, especially government ones! The estimates given in the 2009 plan and now in the survey were just that … estimates. User pays … forever …but how much? There is not yet any cap on what we can be charged for combined boat and carpark fees. The Church Point Plan of Management states, “Annual fee charges are indicative only and will need to be confirmed at completion of works” (p71). Surely we need the fees settled before work starts, not afterwards? LOBBY NOW FOR A CAP – use the survey comment box, contact Council, councillors, SIRA and WPCA committees. How much are you willing to pay each year? $400? $500? $1,000? But will car stickers cost twice as much without the two-level carpark? The survey states that without the two-level carpark “fees may increase to $575 +CPI as per the CPPOM”. This figure is based on a plan with large infill requiring a very substantial seawall, so very expensive. These are not the only two options!
We’ve heard that plans are afoot for the Gosford ferry to add a further stop past Palm Beach. Palm Beach residents have long been complaining about the number of Central Coast commuters who leave cars, utes and vans around Palm Beach wharf. What if the ferry continued to Church Point? A leased car space might be worth it for a Central Coast commuter - and written off as a business expense. Or, for just the price of a permit, they’d have the same rights as you. Will a leased carpark remove cars which are now in the general parking areas? Not necessarily as leasers may be people who are currently using marinas. How good a deal is leasing your own car space? Again, since the costs are estimates, so are the fees. With CPI increases since 2009, the estimate for a leased space is already over $5,000 p.a. If a leased space is cheaper than the marinas, some people who are currently not using Church Point will come from the marinas. But for a bit more money at a marina, you also get a secure boat space and a hot shower! If it’s the same or dearer than the marina, people won’t come and we could have a white elephant. Then who’s paying? How many more spaces does the two-level carpark provide than the current ground-level only plan? 52 – The current CPPOM concept plan has 68 general car spaces in the ground-level only carpark, and the proposed two-level carpark has a total of 120 spaces – 60 general spaces above and 60 private spaces below. The two-level carpark actually loses 8 general spaces due to ramps and structure, so the two level option provides 52 more spaces than the CPPOM ground-level plan. Who will use the new general car spaces? How do we ensure that providing extra spaces doesn’t just attract more cars? All extra general parking spaces are open to the public through either Pay and Display or the Church Point Parking Permit. The Catch 22 is that the easier it is to park, the more tourists, visitors and extra cars will come. Council states clearly they want more parking to encourage general public to come. Great for the Waterfront Store and any business at the Pasadena site, but no guarantee we’ll be better off except at night. Who’s backing the two-level carpark? It is opposed by both Church Point resident associations. It has been rejected twice by West Pittwater Community Association AGM’s. The Plan of Management only says it is to be investigated as a way of raising money to build the rest. Now it’s up to you. Let’s preserve the charm of the Point and keep our options open by rejecting the two-level carpark and pursuing the most cost-effective, aesthetically acceptable ground-level only plan. Dear Editor Congratulations to those who developed and circulated the carpark survey. It’s well designed and it’s good democracy in action – clearly stated, simple and to the point. Everyone is invited to voice a preference so that, acting as a community, we can make a decision that will resolve the issue. I urge any readers who haven’t yet formed a view on this important matter to attend the Community Forum on Sunday afternoon to hear the arguments again, and maybe to make a contribution, before completing the survey. It’s your carpark. Make a difference by choosing your preference. Shar Jones Peninsular Music Club  Concert Series 2012 Become a member or renew your membership now for 2012 Concerts are held at Loquat Valley Prep School, 1977 Pittwater Rd. Bayview Friday Night 8pm Sunday Afternoon 2.30pm A sparkling wine supper is served after each performance Send cheques made payable to PMC to The Hon Secretary Peninsula Music Club 16/67 Lynwood Ave, Dee Why 2099 Enquires Phone 9999-1937 or 9972-3556 Tickets also available at the door. Five Concert Series $65 Single Tickets $20 and Students 18 and under $10 or free when accompanied by and adult.
Lost KEYS A set of keys on a pink carabiner. One post box key, one gold coloured key, one key with a green rubber thingy on it and some other smaller silver keys. Lost on Wednesday 7 March 2012. Also, I have lost a wooden fountain pen on the same day. Not sure if I would have dropped it at the same time, but may have. If anyone has seen it I would really appreciate it being returned. Please call Rachel on 0406 239 946 Missed out on a Newsletter? Go to the archives to download previous notices A complete set of past electronic newsletters since May 2000 can be found and read at https://ymlp.com/archive_gesgjgm.php The Online Local Contact Guide Click HERE to load The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views of the Scotland Island Residents Association (SIRA), or the Western Pittwater Community Association (WPCA) |
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