Planning Minister Rob Stokes hints land release details for Ingleside are coming within three months

PLANNING  Minister Rob Stokes has given the strongest indication in decades that Ingleside residents will finally have closure over the long-touted residential release of land.

Rob Stokes announcement of major upgrade of Mona Vale Rd from Mona Vale to Ingleside. Picture: Martin Lange.

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PLANNING  Minister Rob Stokes has given the strongest indication in decades that Ingleside residents will finally have closure over the long-touted residential release of land.

Mr Stokes said he expected to release a draft strategy for Ingleside within three months. It will detail the release of land to allow for between 3000 and 3500 houses.

“About a third of the land will be conservation, a third will be the style of development you already see up there,” Mr Stokes said. “The last third will be suitable for more intensive development, but the sort of development we are looking at we are not talking about a box of units, it will be terraced houses and traditional subdivision patterns.”

It comes as landowners again expressed frustration over a lack of government communication over plans to rezone the area.

Mark Gell criticised the waiting game he, and many others have been playing for decades. “We don’t care. People are just so fed up. We just want the Government to make a decision one way or another so we can get on with our lives,” he said.

Mark Gell wants the government to make up its mind what it wants to do with Ingleside

“The offhand approach they have taken towards residents and the way they have dodged questions around compulsory acquisition of land was, quite frankly, belittling to the residents.”

Mr Stokes made no apologies. “Our community remembers the experience of Warriewood Valley’s development and the consequences of piecemeal planning that came with it,” he said. “That’s why we’re making sure we have the right framework ... at Ingleside.”

He said the structure plan was “close to finalised” but he pulled it back to seek more detail and was set to meet with planning staff yesterday afternoon.

“The key constraints up there are water, bushfire and transport … I am not satisfied to release an area until we have dealt with those constraints,” he said.

“Mona Vale Rd, the big constraint. We have announced the first stage of planning for Mona Vale Rd and the second stage is now well under way and it will be the next thing to do.”