The council claims the TOD program impacts two such communities in its municipality:Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest and Blue Gum High Forest.
And it alleges there is “no evidence” in the Planning Department’s published material about the TOD program showing officials consulted the Office of Environment and Heritage about possible adverse impacts of the policy on critical habitat and threatened species.
That office sits within the NSW Department of Climate Change,Energy,Environment and Water. Consultation is required under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act if the planning secretary believes the policy will or may have such an impact.
The department declined to comment as the matter was before the court. But planning experts played down the significance of Ku-ring-gai’s legal campaign,saying even if it scored a technical win,the Labor state government would override it anyway.
“All that happens is the proponent then goes and follows due process,and it just rolls forward,” said Peter Phibbs,an emeritus professor of planning at Sydney University’s Henry Halloran Trust. “You win the battle – which they did in Sirius – but you just lose the war.”
In 2017,campaigners won a case against former heritage minister Mark Speakman’sdecision not to heritage list the brutalist Sirius building in Millers Point,after a judge found Speakman (who is now opposition leader)made two errors of law. It forced the then Coalition government to “remake” the decision,and a few months later the government again decided not to list the building.