Currently, an important Planning Proposal for 1-3 Johnson Road is open to submissions from local residents. Hornsby Council needs to hear from us all NOW if we are to save this valuable area and ensure children and local residents along the western side of our village can continue using the former Pony Club site for their social and recreational use.
Mayor Warren Waddell first proposed the rezoning of this site to General Industrial at a council meeting in July 2022 where he described the site as an ‘industrial storage facility’, ‘Council Depot and adjacent land’ and ‘surrounded by similar infrastructure comprising industrial uses’. It was not explained that since 2009, the 3 Johnson Road portion of the site has been constantly used as an informal park by the local community, especially local children and dog walkers – and is used every single day.
At the Council meeting last week many locals spoke up in defence of their park. One local mother and daughter spoke convincingly about how they use this valuable open space and that, “turning this space into a loud, busy area will make it more dangerous for children and ruin the most favourite part of their day – walking through this warm, sunny bushland (after school)”. They outlined how the community is, ‘in disbelief’ because last year they were told to ‘trust the process’ and believed their voices were being heard.
Other speakers outlined that the Galston community is not anti-progress but that this rezoning is ‘deeply irresponsible, deeply unpopular and deeply at odds with what Galston village needs’.
The original Notice of Motion also failed to mention the Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark ‘Critically Endangered Ecological Community’ which surrounds this open space.
The Planning Proposal currently on exhibition outlines a proposal for 28 industrial units and up to 68 car parking spaces with the entrance on Johnson Road itself. If this proposal isn’t bad enough, local residents are also savvy enough to know that being classified as Operational land means if the site is rezoned entirely as E4 Industrial Use, council would be legally entitled to sell off the whole site to the developer with the most money. Council does not have the $14 million plus dollars needed to develop this site so any plans for this site cannot be guaranteed by Councillors.
Galston is not a densely populated area and Old Northern Road and Galston Gorge are NOT suitable commercial road networks to support an industrial complex. This plan seems ludicrous.
The only proposal that has been investigated by Council is for this entire site to be rezoned for industrial use. A Motion that was put forward last year to rezone the trees separately with C2 Conservation Zoning and for the open space to be considered for RE1 Public Recreation zoning was rejected despite this being a way Council could ensure the true attributes of this site are preserved and protected.
This land is used every single day and residents want this Council to put the community needs before profit-driven planning. We hope our councillors take heed.
Closing day for submissions is Sunday 11th May 2025 – please make the effort to contact each individual Councillor, our State MP James Wallace and Federal MP Julian Leeser to tell them your thoughts on such inappropriate rezoning. More details can be found at this link – https://yoursay.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/draft-planning-proposal-1-3-johnson-road-galston
MS K. EMMETT – GALSTON RESIDENT
