Luna Park no fun for residents
Peter Mac The NSW government has once more pranced into the limelight as environmental villain and developers' friend, with its support for a planned gross overdevelopment of Sydney's heritage-listed Luna Park. The plan has joined a huge list of controversial development proposals which the Carr Government has attempted to force through, despite fierce public opposition over major environmental issues. The Luna Park site, formerly the steel fabricating yard for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, occupies prime harbourside land at Milson's Point (on the northern side of the Harbour). Although still beloved by Sydneysiders, its fortunes began to wane with the advent of television and other forms of entertainment. The Park was closed after a disastrous fire some 20 years ago. It reopened some years later with upgraded facilities. Although its financial situation improved, the Park's management, which favoured redevelopment of the site, decided to shut it down once more. A series of consultative processes found public opinion overwhelmingly in support of preservation of the site with no new development. However, the Park's owners have now lodged an application for construction of a complex of five cinemas and a 14-storey building within the Park site. The proposal would massively violate existing planning regulations (the site is zoned for two storeys). It would also obscure harbour views, jeopardise the Park's historic fig trees, spoil and weaken the adjacent heritage-listed cliff face, rob the nearby historic North Sydney Swimming Pool of sunlight, and create massive parking problems in an area where parking is already almost impossible at times. The office building as proposed is a good example of the mad architectural cult of Big and Ugly. Clearly visible from the Bridge and across the harbour, this monstrosity would resemble an assembly of huge children's blocks painted white with black edges, just to make sure you don't miss them. As was the case with the hideous proposal for a garbage recycling plant in the Sydney suburb of Auburn, it seems that the Carr government would be willing to pass a special law to override any council decision against construction of the new Luna Park development. The Mayor of North Sydney, Genia McCaffery, commented bitterly: "This latest development has the power to take away one of the most prized harbour vistas. If the government approves this application it will be ignoring planning controls it approved in law, in the interests of a developer. "The kind of intensification of use proposed by this project is simply not permitted under the planning controls for Luna Park approved by the State government. The Premier's own stated aim of preserving the harbour from excessive height — through the process of "stepped back" buildings — would be made meaningless by approval of this building." The Carr Government's methods of pushing through major development proposals are notorious. They include the passing of special laws to override court and council decisions, the bypassing of normal government procedures, and the scrapping of openness in government. Ms McCaffery commented: "The development application calls into question the tendering process which saw the site's redevelopment contract awarded. Selective tendering to three potential bidders behind closed doors, based on planning controls that could be arbitrarily scrapped if this building is approved, deserves far closer scrutiny. "There was an outcry at Mark Latham's proposal to sell off Kirribilli House. Yet a far more stealthy sell-off of public land on Sydney Harbour is occurring right under our noses, and only the State Government has the power to stop it." Alas, Ms McCaffery, the government might have the power to do so, but they certainly won't have the motivation — as a group, the developers are now by far the biggest contributors to the NSW ALP's coffers — unless the various concerned groups, trade unions and community at large wage a determined, united fight to retain the site.