Scenic Protection.
Mosman Parks & Bushland lobbied for an extension for the Scenic Protection Area.
Mosman’s location on Sydney Harbour at the opening of the Heads is unique and highly visible. Its visual significance lies in its setting on the harbour, its headlands, bays and coves. The way the built environment sits within this landscape is a result of a planning framework that has recognised the need to protect the vegetation in these significant areas as well as require high quality design of the buildings and structures.
The Scenic Protection Area has been threatened in the past and is now threatened again by the NSW Housing Code.
Unfortunately, the NSW government’s standard Housing Code would take development control out of the hands of Mosman Council. In 2009, Mosman obtained a temporary exclusion from the standard code and continued to control development on the harbour slopes. When that temporary exclusion was reaching its end in 2018, MPBA lobbied our state government MP, Felicity Wilson for an extension and she took our concerns to the Minister for Planning. Ms Wilson was successful, and Mosman was granted an extension for its Scenic Protection Area for three years.
But only for 3 years!
So now the problem has arisen again. The NSW government wishes to remove development control from Mosman Council.
Environment zone.
Mosman Council is hoping to create a special Environment zone that will maintain the protection for its foreshores and is negotiating with the Planning Department. Once again, Mosman Parks & Bushland is attempting to lobby for a solution to this impasse.