Smalls Road Public School

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this.
As a teacher and local resident, can I first say congratulations and thank you for this project. Long overdue and much needed.
My thoughts.
1. My children went to Denistone East Primary School. I LOVE that this has stayed a community asset in that some facilities, like a soft fall area for kids to learn to ride bikes, a basketball court and the like are NOT fenced off. I appreciate that fencing will be required, but could consideration be given to incorporating recreational areas that are accessible to the public?
2. How will Operational Waste be removed from the site? i.e. What safe access is there for large garbage trucks to access the rubbish skips/bins?
3. Table 2.1 shows the growth of the closest local public schools from 2008 to 2016.
This does NOT take into account the thousands of dwellings that will come on the market in the next year or two.
The proposal to "accommodate 1,000 students when at full capacity which will incrementally be reached over a 25 year time period" would seem to me to be unrealistic; I worry that the school will need to accommodate 1000 children when it opens.
4. I note the catchment takes in the area between Quarry Road, North Road and Blaxland Road towards Anzac Ave. This is a perfect opportunity to complete the bicycle path between Quarry Road and Blaxland Road. The bike path that currently runs the whole way from Macquarie Shopping Centre through this catchment forces users onto the streets at Quarry Road when instead it could continue through available Crown Land all the way through to Blaxland Road.

Good Morning,

Please provide all relevant data as to how to propose to control and ensure traffic flow within this area ie Smalls Road. As a resident it is extremely difficult at present to exit/enter our street during the hours of 7.30am through to 9.00am each morning and again from approximately 3.00pm through to 6.00pm during the afternoon/evening peak hours. I can only conclude that if and when the school is operational this will only impact the current situation with an increased high risk of potential car accidents and injury to residents/children

As a component of this development we would like the Government to minimise the impacts of increased vehicle access in neighbouring streets and limit aprking in narrow streets to residents only . We are aware that the on site parking will only facilitate half of the number of staff expected to work in the facility. Drop Off and Pick Up areas need to be provided as well
The residents of Lavarack Street neighbouring the facility have become aware of the fact that any development proposals for their properties are limited by the lack of stormwater drainage facilities despite the fact that 3 metres behind our fences is a stormwater drain and pit owned by the NSW govt that cannot be accessed . The residents have approached Ryde Council to either have a stormwater pit constructed at the back or alternatively come to some arrangement with the State Government to allow residents to access the existing stormwater system. The residents request that this matter is addressed as a component of the Smalls Road School development application. In reality the existing stormwater drain only captures water from these properties but they are not allowed to connect directly into it. We would hope that the state and local governments could work collaboratively to solve this problem.
Security arrangements should be made to deny access to the school from Lavarack Street as the road is not a through road and very narrow

* Consideration to have Parking Lines to be painted on residential roads in surrounding streets especially Santa Rosa Ave so that cars being parked are not blocking or obstructing driveways or taking 2 parking spots.

* Considerations in having surrounding residential streets especially Santa Rosa Ave having parking limit restrictions during school hours eg. 4P. This is to avoid school visitors parking all day infront of my premises not allowing us residents to park infront of our premises. School Visitors should be parking on site if planning to visit for more than 4 hour.

* Major concerns in increased traffic on Smalls Rd during peak time. Waiting times to turn right out of Santa Rosa Ave can be lengthy at the moment, this will majorly increase once the school is operational. Causing travel times to increase. How will this be managed? Is their options to include roundabouts on Smalls?

* Traffic will back up at the roundabout on Smalls Rd & Quarry Rds as cars are leaving kiss & drop. This will cause major traffic congestion. What is being considered to avoid this from happening?

I note that all residents in the street pay the Stormwater Management Levy in addition to council rates but we don't have a stormwater pipeline service and therefore are restricted with how we redevelop our properties. I request that Ryde Council work with the Department of Education to provide a stormwater service and easement so that all Lavarack St residents have the service we pay for. In addition this would surely protect the new school from runoff from Lavarack St properties.
I also raise concerns regarding parking in Lavarack St and the street being used for pick up drop off when the school re-opens. I would like to learn what is being done to reduce this. Regards

New Smalls Road Public School - Green Travel Plan

My Major concerns are that public schools are notorious for delays due
to congestion at drop off time and pick up time, just visit Kent RD
school or East Ryde Public as local examples.

What makes Smalls Rd unique compared to any other school and is
nowhere covered in your Green Travel Plan is:

There are 6 Streets, effectively dead ends, that feed into and only
exit path is via Small Rds.

Fawcett ST
Santarose Av
Neville St
Warren St
Zola Av
Christine Ave

Already there are major delays and accessibility issues to the above
streets, in the evenings, as Smalls Park was recently converted to
soccer use ie Due to evening peak hour traffic and parking for soccer.

With this plan Smalls Rd will become twice a day traffic jam for every
school day of the year, where this is not the case now!

The many Local residents need to be considered and should not shoulder
the access issues while Smalls Rd is busy. One way to alleviate this
congestion and funnel point is to introduce an exit and entry lane to
Zola Av from Bridge Rd, then residents could have another option and
not further aggravate the traffic congestion

TfNSW has assessed the relevant documentation and provide comments on the
following matters:
* Proposed widening of Smalls Road along the full length of the site and across the
frontage of the reserve for the proposed provision of drop-off and pick-up facilities;
* Details of the proposed drop-off and pick-up facilities along Smalls Road
* Proposed pedestrian accesses on Lavarack Street;
* Service and loading;
* Preliminary Green Travel Plan; and
* Construction traffic
Detailed comments regarding the above can be found in TAB A and suggested
Conditions of Consent provided in TAB B. TfNSW would be pleased to consider any
further material forwarded from the applicant.
For further information or clarification regarding this matter, please contact Billy Yung,
Senior Transport Planner on 8202 3291 or [email protected].

I have no objections to the proposed development of the School, however I would like to highlight that residents on the east side of the site (upstream) do not have any stormwater services and that redevelopment of the site presents an opportunity for the Department of Education to work with Ryde Council to provide a stormwater pipeline along the east side of the school site, attaching to the existing council pipeline that runs along the north boundary. This would provide protection from stormwater runoff and provide stormwater services to the residents of Lavarack St.
There is an existing above ground half pipe that runs along the east boundary of the school site just behind our properties which runs into a stormwater pit at the bottom of Henri Durant Reserve which I assume was installed to protect the school site from runoff from upstream properties. I note that this does not exist in your stormwater plan `Appendix O Stormwater Plans.pdf'. If this half pipe and pit are being removed or disconnected then how will the new development be protected from runoff from east side upstream properties? These properties in Lavarack Street were built in the 50s and 60s and I believe stormwater runoff was managed by installing rubble pits in their backyards. I'm not sure how affective these would be now. I note that Ryde Council's stormwater and floodplain management DCP advises that absorptions systems are not affective due to soil conditions in the Ryde area being poor at absorbing stormwater.
I hope you will seriously consider these points.
Regards,

Gavin Bourne
16 Lavarack St
Ryde
NSW 2112

PDF attached

Additional drawing for attachment to our recent submission