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This blog is about Rosny Hill, its assets, the many enjoyable experiences to be had there and potential losses of its natural features.
Disclaimer: This blog generally represents the point of view of the Rosny Hill Friends Network. Blog readers are advised to check facts and links presented. Where there are links to external websites, these should also be fact checked. The inclusion of a link to another website does not imply that Rosny Hill Friends Network endorses the content of that website.

Friday 12 October 2018

The Rosny Hill Nature Recreation Area Development Saga - Untangled

By Guest Blogger, Denise Hoggan.

     Clarence  City  Council  is  the  initiator  and  facilitator  of  the  now  withdrawn  development  proposal  for  Rosny  Nature  Recreation  Area.
The  amount  of  direct  community  consultation  is  in  vivid  contrast  to  that  undertaken  for  the  Acton  Tracks  and  Trails  Activity  Plan.  The  consultation  for  this  included  the  usual  displays  and  newspaper  advertisements.  Surprisingly,  as  the  agenda  of  Councils  meeting  on 18th  June  2018  indicate:  "A total  of  969 letters  and  feedback  forms were  mailed  to  Acton  Park  residents,  property  owners  and  key  stakeholders..."
No  such  direct  consultation  occurred  with  the  750  households  of  Rosny-Montagu Bay  throughout  the  whole  proposed  development  process,  which  began  in  2010.  In  this  time  period  these  property  owners  would  have  paid  council  more  than  $10 million  in  rates  yet  are not  worth  $700  in  consultation.

My Interest

I  have  been  digging  into  documents  for  the  last  4  years,  have  met  with  the  Mayor  and  some  Councillors  to  discuss  the  situation  and  have  obtained  extra  data  through   Right  to  Information  legislation.  The  facts,  as  stated,  are  verified  facts.  Forgive  me  if  my  frustrations  and  opinions  creep  in.  4  years  of  research  to  get  the  answers  that  you  want  can  be  really  tedious.

     The  way  that  I  unfold  the  timeline  will  be  in  no  way  related  to  the  way  in  which  I  discovered  things.  My  personal journey  began  with  a  shock.  Date:  April  2014 - Hobart  Mercury.


Vacant Possession???  Rosny  Hill???  Isn't  it  a  Nature  Recreation  Area??

At  the  time  I  was  the  Rosny - Montagu  Bay  Landcare  and  Coastcare  Coordinator.
I  had  retired  to  Rosny  Point  in 2005,  for  the  quiet,  peace,  nearby  bushland  and  views.
My  investigative  journey  was  slow  and  fragmented.  It  does  not  bear  retelling.  Instead,  let  the  Council  Documents  tell  their  own  story.

It's  a  long  story


Clarence  City  Council  became  the  managing  authority  for  the  Rosny  Hill  Nature  Recreation  Area  in  2009.  Was  it  their  love  of  natural  spaces  that  drove  this  initiative?

Targeting


Perhaps  not.  In  the  2010  Strategic  Plan  Rosny  Hill  had  been  targeted  as  a  source  of  PROSPERITY.  Check  this  extract.  Rosny  Hill  is  not  the  only  source  of  mighty  $$$.


Were  you  aware  of  these  other  development  targets? Are  they  in  your  area?

Planning

     Council  wanted  more.  In  2011,  it  released  the  Rosny  Hill  Nature  Recreation  Management  Strategy (Non statutory - that is it cannot  overrule  the  provisions  of  the  National  Parks  and  Reserves  Management  Act  of  2002).
The  consultants  who  had  compiled  the  report  noted  the  following  Native  Vegetation:


     None  of  the  subsequent  reports  from  other  organisations  focus  on  the  threatened SPECIES,  but  this  report  does.  It  is  open,  honest  and  evidence  based.
Later  reports  stresst  the  absence  of  threatened   communities.   That  is  an  easy  way  to  play  down  recognition  of  the  threatened  species  in  the  area.

The  consultants  employed  to  produce  the  2011  management  strategy  made  their  findings  clear.


Was  this  an  effort  by  the  consultancy  firm  to  assert  their  Integrity  and  distance  themselves  from  this  part  of  the  action  plan?

Spending  more  ratepayers  funds  on  Consultancy.

     By  early  2012,  Council  was  employing  more  consultants.  This  time  it  was  a  property  assessment  firm.  Council  considered  its  report  in  June  2012.
I  have  read  the  Agenda  for  this  Council  Meeting  a  number  of  times  and  also  the  property  consultant's  report.  It  was  at  this  meeting  that  the  idea  of  a  conference  centre  on  Rosny  Hill popped  out  of  the  air  and  into  the  Council  officers  report.  It  was  NOT  a  consultant's  recommendation.
      Also,  with  respect  to  Tourist  Accommodation,  the  consultant's  report  stated:
 "Given  the  high  margins  in  tourist  accommodation,  the  scale  of  an  accommodation  facility  can  be  kept  relatively  small (e.g.  possibly  10  to  15  cabins )"
How  did  this  ever  translate into  a  100  unit  resort  proposal,  complete  with  swimming  pool  and  conference  centre?
     The  report  also  recommended  that  Council  spend  money  on "non-commercially viable development to promote increased active  recreational use of the property and provision of services infrastructure which will  underpin and facilitate commercial development”.
     Why  didn't  Clarence  City  Council  spend  a  little  money  on  improving  the  residential  amenity  for  the  residents  of  Rosny  and  Montagu  Bay:  a  boom  gate  to  stop  hooning  at  night  for  example.


Getting  more  Control

Just  five  month's  later,   in  2013,  Clarence  City  Council  had  its  lease  from  the  Crown.  Sole  authority.  Sole  lessee.  The  days  of  joint  management  were  gone.  Parks  and  Wildlife  ensured  that  the  lease  took  the  Nature  Conservation  Act,  2002  and  the  National  Parks  and  Reserves  Management  Act  of  2002  into  account. and



Creating  a  Suitable  Interim  Planning  Scheme.

     Council  continued  to  move  swiftly.  On  the  17th  of  March  2014  the  Clarence  Draft  Interim  Planning  Scheme  was  endorsed  by  Council.  Now  a  500  page  planning  scheme  does  not  pop  into  existence  overnight.  Admittedly,  the  State  Government  had  provided  a  template.  This  was  called  Planning  directive  number  1. (PD1)  The idea  was  to  get  the  29  councils  to  have  schemes  in  a  similar  format  before  the  State  Planning  Provisions  became  operational.  Why  were  Clarence  Council  finished  so  quickly?  The  agenda  for  this  meeting  points  out “there  is no  legislative  requirement to  initiate  a draft  interim  planning scheme  at  this time.”  Why the  rush?

     A  closer  look  at  the  agenda  for  this  meeting  might  show  what  is  going  on.  Skim  reading  would  not.  Firstly,  let  us  look  at  the  zoning  map  for  that  Draft  Interim  Planning  Scheme.  The  image  below  is  extracted  from  a  poster  size  map  obtained  under  Right  To  Information  Legislation.  This  map  was  not  in  the  agenda.  Councillors  may  have  been expected  to  recall  it  from  online  viewing,  unless  they  had  a  viewing  device  in  this  meeting.




   Rosny  Hill  is  shining  bright,  because  it  is  zoned  "recreation"  rather  than  "open  space" like  the  other  natural  areas  that  I  have  indicated  on  this  map.  Being  zoned  "recreation"  means  that  tourist  accommodation  was  allowed.  This  is  not  the  case  for  open  space.

Let's  look  at  that  agenda  more  closely.  The  officers  recommendations  in  their  conversion  table  are  out  of  step  with  this  zoning.  Read  them  for  yourself - here  is  there  table  from  that  agenda  17/3/2014:



     Hang  on,  you  may  well  say,  there  are  no  sporting  facilities  on  Rosny  Hill.  Shouldn't  it  be  zoned  open  space?   How  can  Council  justify  that?

It  comes  back  to  Don  Watson  and  his  "weasel  words".  They  appear  earlier  in  the  agenda.  Even  though  there  is  no  mention  of  Rosny  Hill  in  this  entire  agenda,  there  is  one  key  sentence  that  lets  the  Clarence  City  Council  off  the  hook  legally. No  mention  of  Rosny  Hill  Nature  Recreation  Area  needed...


This  situation  was  checked  with  Clarence  City  Council  by  submitting  the  following  question  in  a  meeting  on  the  13th  of  September,  2018:

"...at  its  meeting  of  17th  of  March,  2014,  why  was  the  anomalous  zoning  of  Rosny  Hill  Nature  Recreation  Area  not  made  more  explicit  in  either  the  agenda  or  the  minutes?"
The  reply:  'The  recreation  zone  was  applied  to  the  RHNRA ,  because,  in  accordance  with  the RHNRA  Management  plan (August  2011)  had  previously  been  identified  for  development consistent  with  the  'reserve'  status  of  the  land.


     But,  hang  on  again - Does  the  non-statutory  RHNMA  Management  plan  of  August  2011  over-rule    2  State  Laws  and  a  Legal  Lease?  No  matter.  Clarence  City  Council  forged  ahead. 

Seeking  Developers

     The  very  next  month  the  Expression  of  Interest   process was  advertised  in  the  Hobart  Mercury  as  an  "unprecedented development  site".  Ka-ching!
Submissions  were  due  by  the  end  of  June  2014.    The  document  was  available  for  potential  developers  but  was  never  placed  on  Clarence  City  Council's  website.  When  Council  was  asked  about  this  on  13/9/2018,  the  reply  included: ..."however,  if  a  request  had  been  made,  Council  would  have  provided  a  copy"  How  remiss  of  me.  I  thought  Council  represented  residents.  These  days  I  am  not  as  naive.

Announcing  a Concept  in  the  first  half  of  2015.



Full credit  to  the  developer for  holding  a  preview  for  the  local  Landcare  group  and  a  public  meeting  at  Rosny  Bowling  Club.  This  meeting  had  no  facilitation  by  Council.  In  my  opinion,  it  was  as  if  Council  were  trying  to  distance  themselves  from  the  developer.  While  I  am  straying  from  documented  fact,  let  me  relay  a  community  rumour  that  this  was  the  only  expression  of  interest  submitted.  It  has  to  be  an  ambit  claim.  Did  our  Councillors  even  understand  that  concept?  38  submissions  were  sent  in  to  Council  or  the  developer.  The  number  1  concern  was  traffic. 


Support  for  the  Preferred Developer


      This  was  the  modified  development  in  November  2015.  The  company  became  the  "preferred  developer".  This  version  has  an  extra  storey  dug  into  the  side  of  the  hill!  Swimming  pool  too!
      Clarence  City  Council  provides  support  for  developers  in  the  city.  This  Rosny  Hill  Nature Recreation  Area  development  proposal  received  support  for  over 2  and  a  half  years!  In  the  meantime,  no  support  was  offered  to  the  Rosny  Hill  Friends  Network  and  each  of  their  actions  to  protect  the reserve  status  was  obstructed.

The  Development  Application  of  April  2018

       It  was  submitted  on  the  20th  April  and  the  fee  paid  in  May. The  public  had  a  brief  glimpse  at  Rosny  Library  on  24th  April.  There  are  few pictures  in  the  public  domain.  ABC  News  released  this  one


Although  it  has  a  smaller  footprint,  it  has  the  same  capacity.  It  has  more  accommodation  units  than  Freycinet  Lodge.


I  hope  the  preceding  outline  of  the  process  gives  you  an  appreciation  of  how  information  can  be  hidden  from  the  public  domain.  Who  wants  to  trawl  Council  Documents  in their  spare  time?  Where  was  the  open  community  consultation?  Where  was  the  generation  of  ideas  for  alternative  uses?

I  have  empathy  for  the  position  of  Councillor.  Information  was  doled  out  to  them  piecemeal. They  are  swamped  with  information.  Yet  they  occupy  a  privileged  position.  They  must  be  information  analysts.  They  must be  aware  of  their  own  Cognitive  Biases.

Did  the  Council  have  a  Cognitive  Bias?

When  I  was  speaking  to  our  Mayor,  I  mentioned  this  to  him  and  he  objected  strongly,  saying  that  Council  is  not  biased.
Sorry  Mr  Mayor,  but  Cognitive  Bias  is  part  of  the  human  condition.  We  all  exist  in  our  own  "filter  bubble",  often  accepting  only  that  evidence  that  feeds  into  our  own  values.  It  is  a  hard  task  indeed  to  change  anyones  mind,  especially  your  own.


When  a  project  has  been  followed  for  a  long  time,  there  is  more  of  a  tendency  to  want  to  complete  it - as  mentioned  in  the  above  diagram  (which  can  be  sourced  on  wikipedia)  there  is  an  escalation  of  commitment.
Councillors,  don't  charge  blindly  down  a  path  that  you  have  followed  for  9  years.  There  is  everyday  word  for  Cognitive  Bias... Groupthink.

     Consider  the  alternative  cost.  What  could  we  have  in  the  Rosny  Hill  Nature  Recreation  area?  Don't  lead  us  by  the  nose,  but  listen.