Letter to General Manager from Environment Officer concerning Coopers Paddock

LAG
Liverpool Action Group Inc.
INCORPORATED UNDER THE ASSOCIATION INCORPORATION ACT, 2005
PO Box 364 LIVERPOOL NSW 2170
SERVING THE COMMUNITY


General Manager
Farooq Portelli
Liverpool City Council
Locked Bag 7064
Liverpool BC NSW 1871
19th October 2011
File No RZ-4/2010 and DA-1089/2011

Re: Access to Coopers Paddock
Dear Sir,
I refer to the Ecological Constraints Report dated August 2011 by Travers Bushfire and Ecology concerning the Eastern Boundary line in relation to Coopers Paddock.
The land being given to Council is all in the flood zone and cannot be developed and therefore the developer has very little usage of the land and in giving it away it is cheaper than paying rates.
The Liverpool City Council residents will be paying to maintain the area if given to Council.
Access to this land by the residents of Liverpool is one of the most important decisions when determining this application.
The present situation gives the ratepayers and Council very little access from Governor Macquarie Drive and no other area in the development can be used for access.
Once the land has been rezoned for an industrial estate then Council has no control over the area for access.
This eastern boundary line must be in front of the Bushland this then gives a good access for the residents to enter Coopers Paddock and thus protects the existing Bushland and wild life and maintains a highly visible area when travelling west over the William Long Bridge along Governor Macquarie Drive.
The proposed rezoning will remove 3.226 ha of river-flat Eucalyptus Forest on Coastal Floodplains used by the endangered or critically endangered wildlife species.
I cannot see any logic other than greed by the developer in removing this Bushland area and the off-setting proposed by the developer cannot be justified as this is a rezoning of land from RE2 Private Recreation to IN1 General Industrial.


Council should not approve the existing proposal as it removes 3.226 ha of river-flat Eucalyptus Forest on Coastal Floodplains that is on the edge areas of bushland that are important to consider as they experience different environmental conditions from the interior.
A buffer of land must be maintained from the end of the bushland to the start of the industrial estate.
Councils Biodiversity Strategy provides Council with a strategic and practical approach to undertaking its roles and responsibility to the protection, enhancement and conservation of the native plants and animals in developing a site from RE2 Private Recreation to IN1 General Industrial.

Yours sincerely


Robert Storey
Environment Officer