Loreto Normanhurst School Redevelopment (Concept Proposal and Stage 1)

APPLICATION NO: SSD-8996
LOCATION NOS. 4, 6, 14, 16, 30-62, 24-28 MOUNT PLEASANT AVENUE, 89 AND 91-93 PENNANT HILLS ROAD, NORMANHURST
APPLICANT: LORETO NORMANHURST LIMITED
COUNCIL AREA: HORNSBY SHIRE
CONSENT AUTHORITY: MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND PUBLIC SPACES OR INDEPENDENT PLANNING COMMISSION

I object to the Proposed Development as it stands for the reasons outlined below.

1. Carpark addition on Mt Pleasant Ave, will attract light pollution, interrupt sleep, carpark fluorescent lights shining in the resident’s windows all night. Unacceptable to our community privacy rights, and health impact.
2. Fluorescent lights may cause, Eye strain, Difficulty reading or focusing, Headache or migraine attacks, Anxiety, Feelings of depression, Disrupted sleep
3. Funneling traffic through Mount Pleasant Ave, which doesn’t have traffic lights. Already subject to traffic due to the daycare.
4. Increasing car parking by 433 spaces, is allowing inexperienced driver’s access.ie: year 11, 12 students.
5. Boarding House addition on Mt Pleasant Ave, is a direct invasion of residents privacy, given they’ll be 5 stories high!
6. I don’t want to live opposite what looks to be a government department building?
7. Traffic impact on intersection of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Pennant Hills Road. The intersection of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Pennant Hills Road is rated ‘F’ the worst possible rating in 20years.
8. Mount Pleasant Avenue is a high risk Bushfire zone, the evacuation of residences, and incoming rescue vehicles such as fire brigade, ambulance service, and the panicked family members and friends of Mount Pleasant Avenue residents, parents of Loreto Students and the elderly residents form The Aged Care Center at the end of Mount Pleasant Avenue.
9. Excess of Parked cars on Mount Pleasant Avenue. When both sides are full, there is only access for one car to pass. Presenting a huge traffic jam, to all incoming and outgoing cars through Mount Pleasant Avenue.
10. Loreto already have a deluge of traffic blocking drive way exiting for residents. Saturdays are particularly bad, because of weekend sport.

Your Faithfully

Jasmina Miletich

Currently it can be very difficult accessing (or leaving) our home at school starting and ending times a situation that is significantly exacerbated when it rains and much larger numbers of parents decide to drive to and/or from school. The situation is further worsened in the afternoon when parents habitually queue in a no stopping zone when they can't fit in the Loreto drop off and pick up zone. It can be very difficult to get home and would be horribly dangerous and possibly tragic in the case of an emergency!
Significantly increasing student numbers at Loreto can only make a bad situation worse.

I have attached a letter detailing my objections to the current proposed redevelopment by Loreto Normanhurst.

I would also like to point out that the location map on your website shows the location of this development as being on the site occupied by Normanhurst Primary School NOT the site of the school in question.

Please find attached my objection to the Loreto Normanhurst School Redevelopment Application SSD-8996

Jeremiah Miletich
xxxxxx
NORMANHURST 2076

8th March 8, 2021

APPLICATION NO: SSD-8996
LOCATION NOS. 4, 6, 14, 16, 30-62, 24-28 MOUNT PLEASANT AVENUE, 89 AND 91-93 PENNANT HILLS ROAD, NORMANHURST
APPLICANT: LORETO NORMANHURST LIMITED
COUNCIL AREA: HORNSBY SHIRE
CONSENT AUTHORITY: MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND PUBLIC SPACES OR INDEPENDENT PLANNING COMMISSION

I object to the Proposed Development as it stands for the reasons outlined below.

1. Carpark addition on Mt Pleasant Ave, will attract light pollution, interrupt sleep, carpark fluorescent lights shining in the resident’s windows all night. Unacceptable to our community privacy rights, and health impact.
2. Fluorescent lights may cause, Eye strain, Difficulty reading or focusing, Headache or migraine attacks, Anxiety, Feelings of depression, Disrupted sleep
3. Funneling traffic through Mount Pleasant Ave, which doesn’t have traffic lights. Already subject to traffic due to the daycare.
4. Increasing car parking by 433 spaces, is allowing inexperienced driver’s access.ie: year 11, 12 students.
5. Boarding House addition on Mt Pleasant Ave, is a direct invasion of residents privacy, given they’ll be 5 stories high!
6. I don’t want to live opposite what looks to be a government department building?
7. Traffic impact on intersection of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Pennant Hills Road. The intersection of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Pennant Hills Road is rated ‘F’ the worst possible rating in 20years.
8. Mount Pleasant Avenue is a high risk Bushfire zone, the evacuation of residences, and incoming rescue vehicles such as fire brigade, ambulance service, and the panicked family members and friends of Mount Pleasant Avenue residents, parents of Loreto Students and the elderly residents form The Aged Care Center at the end of Mount Pleasant Avenue.
9. Excess of Parked cars on Mount Pleasant Avenue. When both sides are full, there is only access for one car to pass. Presenting a huge traffic jam, to all incoming and outgoing cars through Mount Pleasant Avenue.
10. Loreto already have a deluge of traffic blocking drive way exiting for residents. Saturdays are particularly bad, because of weekend sport.

Yours Faithfully

Jeremiah Miletich

Member for Ku-ring-gai submission on behalf of residents

Department of planning
Re: Loreto Normanhurst School’s redevelopment proposal – Application #SSD-8996

I strongly OPPOSE to this development #SSD-8996
Loreto School is a small parcel of land butting onto another “state significant” development called “The Wahroonga Estate” another but different religious organisation. Both these developments have grand plans for their future and have vast amount of capital to do so and sway.
Parts of Loreto and the Wahroonga Estate only have access to their facilities via Mount Pleasant Avenue (MPA) which is a dead end street. MPA is an uncontrolled intersection with Pennant Hills Road, which has heavy traffic even with North Connex. This intersection from past traffic studies has a high danger rating and has had many accidents, to the best of my knowledge, none fatal as yet.
Residence have been campaigning the RMS for decades now to have traffic lights or even “white lines” with “keep clear” which many streets near traffic lights have to facilitate traffic flow. With the earlier developments of Loreto’s pool, increase student numbers and then the addition of a primary school, along with the application of the Wahroonga Estate’s expansion of their Age Care Village, changes in MPA traffic and parking became chaotic and dangerous. Cars are parked on both sides of the street making MPA a single lane carriage way, council’s traffic division stated at a meeting between residents and Loreto, that this was a natural “traffic calming” strategy. The RMS have not listened to residents’ concerns either, nor has the applications for these “state significant” consortiums considered adequate parking or traffic flow. Traffic and parking are impossible now.
Private schools and education are big business, they make lots of money which is seen by their ever-expanding build works. If the parking and traffic for Loreto’s early child centre was on Loreto’s property Loreto would be responsible. All businesses expand, Loreto has expanded extensively over the last two decades, parking and traffic management should also reflect this expansion in their parking and traffic plans appropriately not tokenisticly.
Loreto are fully aware of the animosity that they generate with their many events, with a lack of addressing the traffic and parking problems they generate.
Another issue with Loreto’s development, is the noise factor. Loreto is a noisy place with many events more appropriate for a stadium venue than a residential street. Other schools in the area seem more contained, less busy. Loreto’s use of VERY loud music for their many out of school events activities blasts through my house and many phone calls have been made (and recorded) to have the noise turned off.
Please address these issues as we all have to live somewhere and this just happens to be where we live in MPA.

Traffic from Loreto has always been an issue, and has just gotten worse over the years. It is almost impossible to get in and out of our own street, solely because it is taken up by Loreto cars. As someone who works and goes to uni, it is unavoidable to not be driving at school times. However, not only does this affect how long it takes to get out of the street (turning a 30 second trip into upwards of 10 minutes), it drastically increases the chance of accident. It seems like Loreto comes with an entitlement that allows them to do whatever they want, regardless of the law, or just common courtesy. The amount of times cars have turned out of the drop of bay without checking for oncoming traffic is unbelievable! It's just become usual now to hear beeping coming from over there, because they just seem to think they can turn whenever they want.
In addition to this, the traffic lights at the top of the hill onto pennant hills road serve to create even more of a bottleneck. It is most usual for parents of Loreto students to want to turn right out of Osborn, yet at the same time there are hundreds of cars coming straight up from Normanhurst to get to Loreto. On average, in the morning, if you're lucky, maybe 2 cars can get safely out of Osborn before the light changes. It is dangerous and inconsiderate, it is not the schools private road, nor should they treat it as such. They are sharing this road with all the residents and it is not respectful for them to have this 'holier than thou' attitude and basically screw over the people who actually live here.
Not only is it dangerous and time consuming for residents, it is just waiting for disaster. If there was any significant emergency (a fire, medical emergency or something of the sorts) it is IMPOSSIBLE to get in or out. The back up of the cars going into the drop off bay stretches down Normanhurst Road and along pennant hills road. With both buses and cars trying to turn it, and out, it would be impossible to get an emergency vehicle down the street. This could have potentially dire circumstances, as there are so many residents who live down here, and cutting of their access to help is selfish, rude and down right should not be supported.
Overall the new plans for Loreto are unthought out and are just for Loreto to make money, without thinking of the consequences. Adding parking spaces creates further problems, it solves absolutely none of the current problems and just serves to load more problems on top.
If this goes ahead, then it can be sure that there will be major problems, and Loreto will become even more unliked among the community than it already is.

Objection to SSD 8996 – Loreto School Redevelopment.

Loreto seeks to massively increase its student and staff numbers by drawing on an ever increasing catchment area. It acknowledges that traffic will also increase by proposing greatly increased carparking. There will also be greatly increased drop off and pick up traffic.

Loreto seeks to protect the heritage and landscape of their property but has no regard to the impacts on the surrounding neighbourhood.

Loreto’s Green plans do not much the environmental effects of traffic to the scholl from an ever increasing radius.

I object in particular to a large underground carpark in Osborn Road. Osborn Road already has significant traffic issues, at times dangerous. It is a narrow suburban street and not suitable as an accessway to a large underground carpark. Traffic already banks up into Pennant Hills Road waiting to turn into Osborn Road for the existing carparks. Moving the carparking further down Osborn Road will only produce a longer traffic jam.

There are significant safety issues with access for fire, police, ambulance and SES that are not addressed.
Car parking would be logically better at Site M with access to PH Road as shown on earlier plans.

This is an abridged version as your Portal dumped my submission before I could submit it.

Yours sincerely,
David Wilkins

I am deeply concerned about the safety and accessibility of Mount Pleasant Avenue with the addition of 1,000 more students and their families.

Even prior to this expansion, traffic generated by Loreto creates a gridlock in surrounding streets including Mount Pleasant Avenue, Osborn Road, Nepean Avenue, Normanhurst Road and Fraser Road. The impact on the latter two roads has a significant flow impact on young and vulnerable school children safety at Normanhurst Public School.

The local Normanhurst train station is also already at overcapacity during student travel times. The Loreto development needs to fund platform widening to ensure public safety.

All construction vehicles need to be via Pennant Hills Road only.

Here are my main concerns:

Mount Pleasant Avenue is already a traffic nightmare during school operating hours. Ours is a narrow street made worse when Loreto teachers and students park on both sides of the street, effectively turning MPA into a one-lane street. Loreto doubling their numbers will make this much worse.

Residents already find it hard to exit their homes onto MPA with cars from Loreto parked right up to their driveways. Loreto doubling their numbers will make this much worse.

An oversized new boarding house on the street, a tripling of the junior school facing our street, a new childcare centre on our street, a new staff carpark with courts built on top on our street, and most concerning, a new link road that results in all drop off and pick up traffic from Loreto exiting onto MPA. This is an enormous cost for one street to bear.

The intersection between MPA and PHR is problematic. A five foot high brick fence at the corner severely restricts visibility of oncoming traffic. PHR drops down for first 50m looking north from MPA makes visibility worse. The geometry of the intersection means drivers turning left from MPA face a little to the south and have to look back over their right shoulder at an acute angle to see oncoming traffic. The intersection between MPA and PHR will not cope with the increased traffic this development will result in.  We fear a serious accident may eventuate.

Increased traffic will impact access for emergency vehicles on this street – a particular concern given the aged care facility at the end of our street and our close proximity to bush

Our children’s safety is at risk. Students attending Normanhurst Public School, Normanhurst Boys and those walking to the bus stop outside Loreto are already at risk when they cross from one side of MPA street onto the other. Loreto doubling their numbers will make this much worse. 

There will be at least 4 more entrances and exits to be built on the street with cars and trucks using them in large numbers.

The proposed buildings are unsightly, too large and out of keeping with the residential zoning of our street.



As the school plans to almost double their numbers, their traffic management plan and Green Plan are woefully inadequate. 

In summary, I object to the Loreto Normanhurst amended proposal. The increased traffic would make an already problematic traffic situation even more untenable for residents of Mount Pleasant Avenue and Osborne Road and its five feeder streets, all of which are cul-de-sac roads.

I wholeheartedly object to the redevelopment proposal. Details in the attachment. It is ill-conceived and will impact enormously on neighbouring streets and the suburb of Normanhurst at large.

My objection to the development is attached in file: "Objection Loreto SSD8996 JMC 20210307.pdf"

I believe the current proposal does not factor in the significant impacts of the proposed changes on the traffic flow and residents of Mount Pleasant Avenue.

To whom it may concern,

I strongly object to this proposal.

Safety must come first. Increased pedestrian, motorist accidents and cutting access to emergency vehicles are of most concern.

Loreto are proposing to almost double their school size in the coming years. Their traffic management plan includes creating a flow of traffic from Osborne Rd, through their school and out onto Mount Pleasant Ave. Both streets are dead-end streets. There will be then considerable flow-on effects for other Normanhurst streets, causing traffic delays and threatening the safety of the community. The thousands of school children that walk up and down Normanhurst Rd will be most at risk.

Here are my main concerns:

• School pick up cars queued on Osborn Road block traffic on Pennant Hills Road, and some residents cross onto the wrong side of the road to return home, causing risks to oncoming traffic and pedestrians. This will only worsen if the proposal goes ahead

• With no traffic lights and a banning of the right hand turn from Mount Pleasant Avenue, hundreds of cars that would have otherwise turned right onto Pennant Hills Rd to go to Hornsby/Waitara will be funnelled down Normanhurst Rd. This road is already a traffic nightmare with a shopping centre at the bottom of it and two schools in the vicinity (Normanhurst Boys and Normanhurst Public School). Local traffic could be delayed by 30-60 minutes should the increased traffic from Loreto be funnelled down Normanhurst Rd. The situation will get worse over time as Loreto grows and grows.

• The intersection of Pennant Hills Rd and Osborn Rd is already very dangerous. Northbound traffic from Osborne Rd to Normanhurst Rd and southbound traffic from Normanhurst Rd to Osborn Rd or Pennant Hills Rd currently creates a tricky situation. Add in hundreds more cars forced onto Normanhurst Rd due to the changed traffic conditions and it is a recipe for disaster. The situation will get worse over time as Loreto grows and grows. 

• Increased traffic will impact access for emergency vehicles on our streets.

• Our children’s safety is at risk. Students attending Normanhurst Public School, Normanhurst Boys and those walking to the bus stop outside Loreto are already at risk from Pennant Hills Rd and the morning and afternoon traffic from the schools in the area. Loreto doubling their numbers will make this much worse. 

• The proposed buildings are unsightly, too large and out of keeping with the residential zoning of Normanhurst.

Loreto’s traffic management plan and Green Plan are woefully inadequate. 

In summary, I object to the Loreto Normanhurst amended proposal. The increased traffic would make an already problematic traffic situation even more untenable for residents of Mount Pleasant Avenue, Osborn Road (and its five feeder streets), Normanhurst Rd, Denman Parade, Buckingham Ave and Malsbury Rd and other streets in the neighbourhood. This will impact everyone.

Thank you for considering this submission.

Please note I am making this submission on behalf of my parents, names and address as below.
Regards
Heather Serls

Raymond Frank Oslington
Elfriede Maria Oslington
xxxxxxxx
Wahroonga, NSW,2076
5 March, 2021

Attention: Director- Social and Other infrastructure Assessments

Dear Ms Coomar,

My Husband and I wish to lodge a very strong objection in regards to the Loreto Normanhurst School Redevelopment Plans as they stand now. These plans, while of enormous benefit to the school, show a total lack of consideration and respect for the surrounding community, and the effects this development will have on lives and well- being.

Good planning should surely take into consideration the needs of all.

Our objection revolves purely around the increasing traffic problems, both during and post construction.

Mount Pleasant Avenue, (our street) is not an easy road to navigate. It curves. It dips. It rises. It is narrow. Cars park on both sides of the road. It serves private homes: an Aged Care and Retirement Facility: a Care Home for people with disabilities, and Loreto school.
It carries a lot of traffic, (including ambulances) to and from the Aged Care Facility. School traffic. Resident traffic. All the usual suburban vehicles, garbage trucks, tradies, delivery trucks, etc. For the past two days Loreto buses are using the road. (We have wonderful photos of the bus crossing double white lines to negotiate the entry into Mount Pleasant Ave). This road is not a through road. There is only one entry/exit, and that on to a busy Pennant Hills Road.
We suggest that Mount Pleasant Ave needs to be widened, and that traffic lights need to be installed before any construction begins.

Osborn Road, on the other side of the school, is a nightmare to navigate. The residents of that street already have a heavy burden, one which will become heavier during the construction phase, and then of course with the increased student body. Osborn Road also have an urgent need for their road to be widened before any construction commences.
Loreto has a great deal of land. Why cannot some land be sliced off to widen Osborn Road and provide an extra lane? Surely that would benefit school and residents.

To our mind Loreto has done little to help the local residents. In fact, Loreto have been very disingenuous with the traffic surveys they have conducted; i.e. during times when there were fewer students at school (perhaps on school camps), or times other than at peak periods.
The car parking within school grounds on current plans provide the bare minimum required and do not reflect the true need. It is useless to say that students will be encouraged to walk or ride bikes etc., and therefore fewer spaces are needed or to say that more students will be encouraged to catch the trains. The reality is that the littlies will still be driven to school and that the senior students will still drive to school unless forbidden by the school to do so.
The lack of school parking will push more parking back onto the streets.
And the problems go on.

Before passing these plans we ask that you consider the needs of not only Loreto, but also those of the surrounding community.
Our lives matter too.

Yours sincerely,
Elfriede and Raymond Oslington


Declaration – We have not made any political donations during the past two years - Raymond Frank Oslington. Elfriede Maria Oslington

Please refer to attachment for justification for my objection.

Loreto has firmly shifted its focus to business profit. That would be its own business if it happily covered all the costs that align with its profits. However, over the last few decades, the costs have been progressively pushed onto surrounding residents in the form of unacceptable traffic issues.

I object to this current proposal, which would further seek to transfer value from residents to Loreto’s expanding business interests.

I again ask that any approval include as a pre-condition a large capacity improvement at the existing Osborn Road traffic lights. With Loreto’s cooperation, it is easily possible to improve the Osborn Road traffic lights without interfering with Pennant Hills Road efficiency.

I strongly object to SSD-8996, please refer to attached letter for further details.

Please find attached submission in PDF Format