Lindfield Learning Village

I strongly support this development but have the following comments to add:
1. The gym, sports hall, library, and other facilities should be open for community use during the weekend.
2. There should be more variety of routes and more frequent public bus services available to the community. The current traffic report only addresses the needs of the school but fails to consider the fact that any improvements to local public transport options will reduce community private vehicle use, hence helping to reduce congestion in the area. Current strategy focuses too much on school bus and staff & student shuttle bus but not enough on public buses. Bus frequencies on the weekend and non-school days should also be improved. Current case studies should only be referenced as the new school has a lot more community facilities than a normal school. Therefore it will likely be accessed by the wider public during weekend and non-school hours.
3. Intersections at Grosvenor Rd & Pacific Hwy, Grosvenor Rd & Lady Game Dr, as well as Austral Ave, should be upgraded.

Hi Team,

Building a school close to our home is great benefit for us, however, I concern the traffic will be problematic in future. I've read through Traffic Assessment, looks like they missed out assess how busy the intersection of Dunstan Grove and Eton Road; intersection of Shout Ridge and Eton Road, intersection of Eton Road and Abingdon Road will be in future.

Please bear in mind, this school is surrounding high density apartments, and Dunstan Grove, Shout Ridge are all small street, and they are the only exit road for people living here. It willl bring a lot of pain for people are trying to get to work in the morning with those parents come drop off their kids.

The entry of the school is the intersection of Dunstan Grove and Eton Road, which is a tiny intersection cannot handle large amount of cars.

I hope the traffic assessment can be reviewed again with those intersection I mentioned, the street need to be widen and intersection need to widen to accomodate 2100 people school.

Samantha

After assessing the ARUP Traffic Report it appears to have failed to measure and assess the traffic generation that will be caused along Abingdon Road and along Shirley Rd, to access the Pacific Highway travelling South. Travelling South to all the major commercial office centres of Chatswood, St Leonards, North Sydney, and the Sydney CBD is the No 1 travel route for residents in the immediate area. The rate run to gain access to Pac Hwy south will be via Abingdon and Shirley Roads and not via Grosvenor Rd.
We regularly have to wait two sets of lights in the morning now following the increased traffic from the development of the Defence Units, which will only increase with the development of the Screen Australia site and now with the morning rush hour for drop offs I suggest we will expect 4 sets of lights at the Shirley Rd/Pacific Highway lights.

Major oversight by ARUP's! A solution required, I only object on the grounds of traffic generation. Need to protect local residents. Suggest parents drop off at major railway stations with local bus loops servicing the school

Introduction

As a Ku-Ring-Gai resident living near the proposed Lindfield Learning Village (previously "Lindfield School of the Future"), I wish to make a submission regarding the road access, parking facilities and bushfire safety.

The NSW Government plans state that the site will cater for over 2000 Kindergarten to Year 12 students as well as childcare facilities for 94 children and administration facilities for distance education. There will additionally be around 200 staff. These massive numbers for a site with very limited road and no rail access make it urgent that the resultant traffic issues are given very serious consideration before they grid-lock the North Shore Pacific Highway and local roads morning and afternoon.

In addition to the merits of the School's academic program, upon which I do not comment, issues regarding safety and accessibility for staff and students to the School, as well as the safety and amenity of nearby local residents, are of primary importance!

Previously, through the good offices of Minister Adrian Piccoli, a copy of the NSW Government document "Proposed Lindfield Combined K-12 School - Traffic and parking impact assessment" dated 23 October 2014 was made available to me by Sue Low (Acting Director, Public Schools NSW, Ku-Ring-Gai Network). I provided a commentary on this in July 2016 to all relevant members of the NSW Government and of Ku-Ring-Gai Council. I had previously expressed concern about traffic, parking and bushfire issues in a letter to former Premier Barry O'Farrell dated 12.8.14 that was passed on to Minister Piccoli who responded to me in a letter dated 9.9.14.

Having digested the contents of this earlier NSW Government Document and now the updated Traffic and Transport Assessment (13.6.17; "TTA document") which is similar in its conclusions, as well as the "Social Impact Assessment" and "Bushfire Assessment Report", I wish to make the following submission on these issues.

Traffic Access

From the TTA document it is clear that access of school pupils and staff to the School, in addition to those already accessing the new Crimson Hill area of Lindfield (335 new dwellings), will add significantly to the traffic in this area of unclassified residential streets and that especially in the mornings, this will be at peak hours. Furthermore, a significant part of this extra traffic will consist of buses that are unsuited for these narrow residential streets with parking on both sides.

If coming from the south along the Pacific Highway, the School traffic will need to turn either into Shirley Rd, Westbourne Rd/Abingdon Rd, Eton Avenue or Grosvenor Road. Having dropped their children, parents' cars will then need to get back on the Highway via Grosvenor Road or Shirley Rd in order to turn south. Both the Grosvenor Road/Pacific Highway and Shirley Rd/Pacific Highway junctions are already badly congested at morning peak hours, hence this will create further substantial delays for local residents and commuters to the CBD and Chatswood and probably gridlock.

If coming from the north along the highway, School traffic must also turn right into Grosvenor Road or, less likely, Shirley Rd, and to return north it must also exit from Grosvenor Road, or possibly Eton Avenue. This again puts unwelcome and probably unsustainable pressure on the Grosvenor Road/Pacific Highway junction.

Similar problems will occur when pupils are collected at the end of school hours, ostensibly reduced by some degree compared to the morning since this will be - just - before peak hour homeward traffic north on the Highway from Chatswood and the CBD. However, since there is a lot of extra traffic at this hour around Lindfield Public School located at the junction of Grosvenor Rd and the Pacific Highway, congestion is likely to be as bad as in the morning rush hour.

It is clear that Eton Avenue and Austral Ave, although classified as local roads, are already carrying in excess of what would be acceptable for a residential street. Therefore, with the extra traffic resulting from the School, they will be subjected to usage even further above that expected or desired for a residential street for several hours per day. It is suggested that "Good practice would be a staged opening of the school to locate inappropriate traffic concentrations and shift them to better capacity roads". However it does not identify these "better capacity roads", perhaps because - in my view - they do not exist in this neighbourhood. Major road building projects would be required.

While the TTA and Social Impact Documents recommend staggered starting times and gradual occupation of the School together with traffic monitoring and review before full usage, I believe it to be already clear that the traffic situation will become untenable. In recent years, there has already been considerable extra traffic from multistorey apartment building on and near the Pacific Highway in Lindfield and in the surrounding suburbs of Chatswood, Roseville, Killara and Gordon and this will be added to by the proposed extensive shopping centre developments on each side of the Pacific Highway in Lindfield itself. Already, this section of the Pacific Highway is recognised by the Roads and Maritime Services as one of the five slowest in the city at rush hour, with average speeds as low as 20km per hour. Our observation is that morning rush hour on the Pacific Highway in Lindfield extends from around 7am to 9.45, with a similarly long period in the afternoon. Thus having three large school cohorts starting at 7.30, 8.30 and 9am would simply extend the traffic congestion problem, not solve it.

Access to the School from Lady Game Drive via lower Grosvenor Road is equally fraught as anyone trying to travel this in peak hours will confirm. The junction of Lady Game Drive and Millwood Ave/Delhi Rd Is already a major problem area at peak hours. This is recognised in the TTA document.

Parking Availability

The TTA document makes it clear that the School does not have enough parking spaces and I believe that further consideration needs to be given as to how to satisfy the shortfall. At the least, a two or three storey car parking station will be needed. Council should not accept any on-site parking shortfall, as is suggested.

It is entirely unsatisfactory to rely on parking outside of the School grounds for the planned (!) overflow of 100+ cars. Nearby residents have already had to put up with such parking by UTS students when UTS selfishly sold its parking lots while they were still needed, leading to unacceptable congestion in nearby residential streets. The student parking left only one lane for traffic on all nearby roads, including Grosvenor Rd, and made them yet more dangerous, especially when trucks and buses were trying to pass.

Bushfires

Given the above conclusions re the poor access to the School, it is clear that bushfire danger is a real concern, especially given the history of bushfires in this particular area and the nearby destruction of houses in the recent past (see, for example, "Region faces high fire risk" referring to East Lindfield, in North Shore Times 23.10.15). It is recognised that this site is on bushfire-prone land in the Bushfire Assessment Report. I am therefore dismayed that the site does not comply with the targets of Bush Fire Protection 2006, has no compliance with Asset Protection Zones and has no easy accessibility to bushfire areas. Especially with the increased frequency of bushfires predicted from Climate Change, and with 2000 children on site, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

Conclusions

My conclusions are that the proposals in the TTA Document are highly optimistic and indeed unrealistic in not predicting that unacceptable extra congestion of the surrounding road system will unavoidably accompany the establishment of the School.

This will be exacerbated by insufficient parking on the School grounds, forcing School-related parking on local streets and increased resultant dangerous congestion and inconvenience for local residents. I would regard it as essential that at the very least, a multi-storey parking station be built before the School opens.

It is totally inappropriate to say that local residents will accept problems caused by access and parking associated with the School because of "real benefit to the community" received from the presence of the School. There are few benefits for nearby residents, who will bear the brunt of the traffic and parking problems
(unless their child happens to attend the school). This is an expensive residential area and residents are entitled to expect their amenities to be maintained.

In summary, it is my view that the NSW Government should reconsider the real-world viability of the entire concept of a very large school at this location so difficult of access.

Support the proposal conditionally to satisfactory and adequate traffic arrangements, there's concerns on increased traffic activity.

Unclear from proposals submitted what (if any) plans on traffic flow/management especially those affected living with Dunstan Grove.

Appreciate brief couple of pages details summary on impact on DG residents.

The re-purposing of the UTS campus as a K-12 School has merit however, the numbers proposed are entirely inappropriate.
The campus is now undergoing development with residential buildings (Tubbs View, Shouts Ridge, Dunston Grove, Film Australia and more) bringing the permanent population to well over 1000 people and an additional 800+ cars.
To add a school population of 2100 would simply cripple the site as well as the surrounding roads and parking.
My suggestion would be to limit the school population to a maximum 900 - 1100 and put in place a traffic management plan to address the peak hour comings and goings of both the local residents and the school drop-off/pick ups.

I support the new school proposed. However I do not think that sufficient attention has been paid to the access, public transport and car parking issues.

There is not sufficient parking for the staff proposed.
Parking needs to be provided for year 12 students. It is short sighted to state that because other local schools don't provide parking this one doesn't need to. Find the space please.
Parking for visitors needs to be improved.

The local streets will be heavily impacted if car parking is not addressed correctly. Parking on streets will also impact the public transport access as the local streets are not wide enough to accomodate parking and bus traffic.

The EIS has not considered the local intersections sufficiently. There are several intersections that will become more dangerous with more traffic. For example the intersection of Eton Road and Austral Avenue should be upgraded to a roundabout. This would provide safer turning for vehicles and some protection for pedestrians crossing Austral Avenue.

The EIS is very vague about the public transport solutions. These need to be carefully thought out and publicised. Especially if no further car park spaces are provided. It is highly unlikely that school students or staff will walk from Roseville or Lindfield train station. A school bus that traverses the school catchment will alleviate some traffic and parking pressure. However the 565 would not fill that roll. In addition in the current social environment very few primary school students walk by themselves to school.

Please address the above issues to maintain a safe and efficient road network around the new school.

Thanks
Tanya Coates

I am resident of the immediate area of the development and overall I support the project. This is a great development to support the community and we expect to enrol our young children a few years after opening.

I do have some comments to submit. I primarily have concerns related the the ARUP transport report.

To start, I support the recommendations around changes to support the use of sustainable forms of transport particularly public transport. Whilst out of scope, we would like for the re-evaluation of a train station on or near the site as part of the Chatswood to Epping line. To have a train line directly below the school with no proposed access to it or the adjacent stations appears short sighted. Granted the building of a station would be costly and require deep excavation, however, it should be reconsidered.

I disagree with estimation of road traffic impact, particularly around the use of Lady Game drive. I think that the catchments as present in section 5.1 highlight areas which would need to use Lady Game drive. I also note that the catchments are not final these could expand to cover Macquarie Park or areas close to there. As that is a centre for population growth, it may be that significant traffic would originate there. Therefore, ignoring the impact on Lady Game drive is not a conservative approach.

Of even more concern, the ARUP report fails to sufficiently consider the impact of car movements post drop off in the AM peak. The report states in figure 40 that 25% of departing car movements will depart via Grosvenor Road and Lady Game Drive (southbound). The junction at the southen exit of Lady Game drive (with Millwood Ave) is far over capacity and experiences wait times of over 15 minutes during the AM. At times the traffic on this route extends past the round about at the junction of Lady Game Drive and Grosvenor road up Grosvenor road. This can prevent traffic turning right out of Grosvener road on to Lady Game (Northbound) which further exacerbates congestion.

The report makes no reference or recommendation to the impact departing traffic will have on Lady Game Drive southbound to Millwood Ave. This, I feel, is a significant oversight. Wait times could be expected to exceed 20 to 25 minutes at that junction. Important to note that that is bushfire prone land with no route for exit if that junction is blocked. Recommendations should be made to support the movement of vehicles exiting Lady Game Drive onto Millwood Avenue and Delhi Road. Such as traffic light phasing or inclusion of a right turn filter exiting Lady Game onto Delhi.

References in Section 4 - Road updgrades - Regarding roundabout upgrades will not improve traffic on Lady Game drive.


I Support addition of footpaths to the area. This is something that is required. Please also consider footpaths for Winchester Ave.

Lastly, whilst it is out of scope of the development, I would suggest that the department work with Kuringai council to support the creation of further amenities at Charles Bean oval. Notably a Cafe within part of the community centre there. Currently this community centre is either vacant or used as display suites for residential development. Surely this open space could offer an amenity for residents and persons visiting the playing field.

The development will substantially change local traffic flow and public transport needs. As a local resident I am unhappy about and expect a more detailed explanation of the following:

*Car and bus access, including proposed reconfiguration of Eton Road near the present bus stop
*Number and sites of proposed new bus stops
*Hours of speed restrictions
*Proposed public bus timetables

Please delete my personal information before publication.

While I am supportive on the concept of the Lindfield Learning Village, I have been unable to access the EIS Traffic Assessment on-line and therefore wish to raise a number of concerns in relation to Application SSD 8114

Traffic congestion at the site

The amount of traffic will increase significantly as a result of the proposed development. The proposed development will accommodate 2,100 students, childcare for 94 children and administration facilities for a distance education college (no information is available regarding the number of staff or students attending this college).

A report by Active Healthy Kids Australia [1], indicates that 66% of children aged 5-6 years, 57% of children aged 9-10 years and 24% of children aged 12-17 travel to school by car more than 5 times per week.

Using an estimate of 50% of children travelling to school by car, I am guessing the proposed development could result in an additional 1,100 cars entering and leaving the site each morning and afternoon. In addition, the number of bus services will need to be increased to transport the remainder of students to and from school each day. However, I am unsure whether the current bus bay is adequate to accommodate additional bus services. The footpath is only present on one side of the road and is narrow and poorly lit.

I understand the Lindfield Learning Village will use the Charles Bean Sportsfield, which may also require students to have access to the sports grounds via a pedestrian crossing on Dunstan Grove throughout the school day.

There is no on-street parking at the end of Eton Road and only very limited parking in Dunstan Grove. This situation will be further acerbated by competition for available parking spaces from residents and people using the Charles Bean Sportsfield which is regularly used by the Northern Suburbs Football Association.

The prosed development is located at the end of Eton Road. This is a long road (approx. 1 km) with limited access to the Pacific Highway. Traffic entering the site will be forced to turn around to exit, causing congestion at the site and restricting traffic exiting Dunstan Grove.


Traffic congestion in the local area

The impacts of this proposal need to take into consideration the cumulative impacts of development in the local area, including increased traffic resulting from developments in the immediate vicinity, such as Crimson Hill and Eton Estate. In 2012, a Traffic Impact Assessment Report [2] associated with the Eton Road development described the performance of the intersection on Lady Game Drive & Millwood Ave as at capacity and in the morning peak and operating near capacity in the afternoon peak.

Direct access to the Pacific Highway from this site is only available for vehicles turning left. Vehicles wishing to turn right will have to access the Highway via Grosvenor Road which is already affected by traffic restrictions, due to the fact that Lindfield Public School is located on the corner of the Pacific Highway and Grosvenor Road.

Cumulative impact of development on traffic

I am also concerned about the cumulative impacts of development more broadly throughout the municipality in relation to traffic congestion and travel times. Traffic is heavy along the Pacific Highway during peak hours and all day on weekends.

References:
1. Active Healthy Kids Australia (2015). The Road Less Travelled: The 2015 Active Healthy Kids Australia Progress Report Card on Active Transport for Children and Young People. Adelaide, South Australia: Active Healthy Kids Australia.

2. TRAFFIX. Traffic Impact Assessment Report. Planning Proposal 101 Eton Road Lindfield.

Please find the enclosed attachment which provides my detailed comments for inclusion in the plan

Please see attached PDF.

See attachment

My concern is about traffic. Please see attached document.

Submisssion is in attachment.

See Attachment

Dear Sir / Madam,
Please find attached my submission in relation to the Lindfield Learning Village.
Yours sincerely,
Jay Horton

See attachment

See attachment.

See attachment.