The plan and associated details can be found on Council’s website. Large-format hard copies are available in the Library and are easier to read. Feedback is through a survey and/or submission to Council. Everyone is urged to give feedback to Council and encourage others to do so. Our Foreshore and Lake are the jewels of Lake Macquarie!
The planners have looked at the potential of every square metre and incorporated new amenities and landscaping that will greatly improve the recreational use of this hitherto rather neglected foreshore strip.
A few minor changes have been made following the public consultation in December/January: shared and walking path locations are now shown, a small shade pavilion replaces the existing rotunda, and there are car drop-off points. The plan incorporates a number of facilities and additions that will allow improved use of the relatively small area for everyone in formalised and natural settings.
However, the proposed small, single-storey building on the Bath Street site is still sketchy, other than ‘potential cafe and bike hub’. Council’s foreshadowed reclassification from ‘operational’ to ‘community’ land for some of the Bath Street site and the remaining Victory Row parcels has yet to occur.
Two other key issues have not yet been adequately dealt with. These are parking and boat access to the Lake. They are discussed below from the perspectives of the TFPG and RMYC Toronto, respectively.
FORESHORE MASTER PLAN FAILS ON PARKING
A good masterplan doesn’t just look good on paper/screen. It also addresses the practicalities. Toronto’s foreshore will only be ‘activated’ if people can get there without too much inconvenience. Access means that traffic and parking must be part of the design, not an after-thought.As it stands, the masterplan adds ‘facilities’, including a cafe, but takes away quite a lot of parking. Parking spaces are shown on the maps, but no estimate is given of the net impact. Blind Freddy can see that more people and less parking is a recipe for chaos and frustration.
In respect to parking, Lake Macquarie Council has failed the community three times over. First, it did not require in the contract that the planners should calculate the net impact on traffic and parking, including boat trailers (which have been banished). Second, community concerns expressed during the preliminary consultation seem to have been ignored. Third, Council does not have an updated Traffic & Parking strategy to address Toronto’s growing population (which Council is underwriting). Hardly integrated planning.
No-one wants the Foreshore to become a carpark. No-one wants the township to be over-whelmed by traffic and parked cars. But if people can’t get to the Foreshore, they will stay away, which is not ‘activation’.
The Mayor and councillors need to explain how people will be able to get their boats, kayaks, etc. into and out of the Lake, how picnickers will get their gear to/from the Foreshore, how families will manage with strollers and young children, or the elderly/disabled. ‘First in first served’ is not good enough.
There are not many options, but there are some. Angle parking on both sides of Bath Street would help to accommodate patrons to the Yacht Club and café, as would more parking behind the café, which could be moved forward. Victory Parade could be better managed. A loop bus would help to move people around if they have to park further away. And it must all be safe for pedestrians.
The Mayor and Council must ensure that the money spent on consultants is well spent and that the CEO and staff are doing their job to provide a framework to integrate the Masterplan. Ignoring obvious problems is not planning.
The RMYC’s Perspective
The RMYC raised the following points in a letter to Councillors with supporting documentation that can be viewed on the http://tfpg.org.au website.
In our response to the preliminary Toronto Foreshore Master Plan (FMP) released in late 2020, we indicated that the club supports the direction and that it was clearly an improvement on Council’s original proposal. At the same time, our response pointed to deficiencies that were also highlighted in ‘community consultation / pop up sessions. The club is disappointed that those deficiencies have now been replicated in the draft FMP.
The following points summarise our more detailed response:
- Parking is not addressed in the preliminary or draft FMP. If the FMP intent is to activate the foreshore, it will need sufficient parking along with frequent and accessible public transport.
- Lake Macquarie is an aquatic playground but this plan barely addresses boating needs.
- Angle parking could easily be accommodated on the southern side of Bath Street.
- The northern side of Bath Street might also have some right-angle parking interspaced with trees. The RMYC are keen to discuss leasing the footpath area in Bath Street alongside the club for its long-term parking needs.
- Removal of the Wharf Street launching ramp will put pressure on the Bath Street ramp, where no trailer boat parking is planned. Whilst the Bath Street ramp is part of the RMYC Toronto Marina’s Permissive Occupancy, it is available to be used – and is used as a free of charge - as a public ramp.
- Parking on the Bath Street site is not primarily overflow for RMYC. During the peak of the Covid19 pandemic, the RMYC car park was empty but workers in/visitors to Toronto continued to park on Bath Street.
- The Bath street site is used as overflow parking when there are big community and Lake based recreational activities. These include the Heaven Can Wait Charity Sailing Regatta as held in February 2021 and which – over 15 years, has raised $470,000 in support of Cancer Council and Marine Rescue.
- Combined with support for recreational boating, club support for community-based events (more than 300 in total), brings many visitors to Toronto, thereby helping to ‘activate’ the Foreshore.
- The RMYC is a 90-year-old, Not-For-Profit, community-based club, (2,600 members), with no debt and housed in a heritage building (the former Arnott’s holiday home). It deserves to be supported by Council, not penalised.
Additional community concerns have been raised about the lack of recognition and respect of heritage and historical values highlighted by the proposed removal & replacement of the rotunda which was built in 2002, and which houses 7 plaques recognising significant local events and has strong social ties with the community. Could it be retained and enhanced to both save a community structure and reduce the wastage associated with demolition and rebuilding?
Feedback to Council by 22nd March
