The Ingleburn chamber of commerce is very happy that Campbelltown Council is trying to come up with a plan to revitalise the central business district in the north of the city.
But the chamber says the council needs to listen to the building owners, for starters, before adopting the plan, known as the Ingleburn Structure Plan.
A majority of councillors voted last week to approve the plan and put it on exhibition for 28 days, despite the plea of Councillor George Greiss, who said that if council pressed ahead it meant that “it wasn’t serious about Ingleburn’’.
“Either we do it right or we don’t do it at all,’’ Cr Greiss told council.
But his argument that council should “get a second opinion’’ fell on deaf ears as most councillors said they felt there was a need to get a move on.
“We always seem to delay, delay, delay,’’ Cr Fred Borg said.
But the chamber of commerce in Ingleburn expressed similar sentiments as Cr Greiss.
Secretary Phil Occhiuto told the South West Voice that while there were some very good things in the draft plan, there were issues which needed to be discussed before proceeding.
“We have owners of some of the buildings in Oxford Road who bought a long time ago, some as many as 50 years ago and they deserve to be heard by council,’’ Mr Occhiuto said.
Chamber president Jim Jelich agreed: “Look, it’s good that council is trying to do something about the Ingleburn CBD, but let’s do things properly by sitting down for a forum where the council can hear what the owners have to say about what’s being proposed.’’
It’s believed building owners will have issue with proposals for 2, 4, 6 and 8 storey limits around the Ingleburn CBD which confine Oxford Road to just two storeys. The proposed eight storeys are behind the main street.
“Some of the owners may feel it is not fair that after all these years there is a limit on how many storeys you can build to,’’ Mr Occhiuto said.
The chamber, Mr Occhiuto said, would now write a letter to Campbelltown Council, imploring it to sit down with the chamber and the building owners in a forum to discuss the proposals.
The five key elements in the draft plan are:
1. Re-enforcement of Oxford Street as the focus of community interaction and main street shopping;
2. Introduction of mixed use developments to allow for the expansion of commercial/retail opportunities;
3. Introduction of higher density living opportunities;
4. Expansion of the existing medium density zone beyond Cumberland Road and the consideration of height limits in excess of two storeys in this area;
5. Creation of new public spaces.
Eric, in fact during this exhibition is exactly the time when the chamber should submit their comments and any alternatives so they can be properly considered in context with other initiatives council may be proposing or considering at the same time.
The discourse between the two parties will be far more constructive this way. Just my thoughts.