The NSW chapter of the National Trust has called for the immediate abandonment of plans to relocate the Kogarah Golf Course on to park land to make way for thousands of new apartments, describing the loss of public land as a "deplorable result" for the community.
The National Trust's objection to the proposed golf course relocation was among a raft of written submissions opposing the massive redevelopment of the Cooks Cove precinct, the majority of which were authored by local residents and community groups.
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$100m move secures Kogarah Golf Club's future
Developers are planning to relocate the Kogarah golf course to make way for a sprawling 100-hectare development featuring 5,000 homes and a new sports stadium.
In December last year, Cook Cove Inlet Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of John Boyd Properties, lodged a $100 million development application with the Bayside Council, reconstruct the 18-hole golf course on a 99-year lease across 52 hectares of parkland in the southern precinct of the Cooks Cove site.
The Trust's NSW director of advocacy Graham Quint condemned the proposal as contingent upon the loss of publicly-accessible crown land, which he described as a "highly negative outcome for the community."
"The relocation of the golf course to occupy current open space represents an alienation of public reserves to private interests and a net loss to the community."
"The proposal should be abandoned immediately in favour of significant levels of investment in environmental management and recreational open-space."
Mr Quint also questioned the acquisition of 1.4 hectares of the heritage-listed Arncliffe market gardens to make way for the new golf course.
"No justification is provided for why an area of government-owned, heritage listed land should be provided to ensure the success of a private commercial operation," Mr Quint wrote.
The Market Gardens site, which has been in use since the 1840s, has a long-association with the Chinese community and is one of three surviving market gardens in the inner Sydney area.
A separate submission from the son of a Chinese garden whose father had farmed vegetables at the site since 1993, said the proposal would have a "significant impact on the livelihood of our family financially and mentally".
"We have always believed that the farm land was a protected cultural land that was not to be redeveloped."
A spokesman for the developer said the proposed acquisition related to a largely uncultivated section of the garden, and would "restore what has been the previous boundary of the Market Gardens since the 1950s".
It would be used to create a new saltmarsh habitat to serve as a buffer to nearby Landing Lights Wetlands, and a further $320,000 would be spent upgrading the cultivation area.
"This includes removal of asbestos, new truck turning facilities, and new drainage, which will prevent parts of the Market Gardens site from flooding," the spokesman said.
The golf course relocation is stage one of the proposal by John Boyd Properties to redevelop the 100 hectares comprising the Cooks Cove precinct, which is divided into two sections by the M5 highway.
The relocation will free up the northern precinct of land â where the golf course is currently located â for the developer to build 5000 new apartments, along with a new football stadium to replace the derelict St George stadium.
The developer has also proposed to address open space concerns by providing new cycle ways, pocket parks and fitness stations in areas that are currently fenced in and inaccessible.
The public consultation process for the relocation bid, which closed on Friday, was punctuated by revelations by Fairfax Media that former premier Mike Baird order the fast-tracking of a "planning pathway" for the Cook Cove precinct in September 2014, after broadcaster Alan Jones wrote to him about John Boyd's rejected proposal for the area.
In an email response to Mr Jones, Mr Baird said he had he had written to the government developer, Urban Growth Development Corporation requesting they work "expeditiously with the Kogarah Golf Club, WestConnex Delivery Authority, Rockdale Council and other stakeholders to finalise a planning pathway to ensure that the optimum future use of the site is achieved in a timely manner".
Mr Baird's directive followed more than a decade of thwarted plans by Mr Boyd to redevelop the Cook Cove precinct, including a development attempt in 2009 which was abandoned due to the global financial crisis.
More than half of the 60 submissions received by Bayside Council raised concerns about the loss of open space to private development, as well as the potential threat to key wetlands around the proposed golf course site, which the developer has pledged to rehabilitate and maintain.
A further 15 submissions, mostly authored by local residents or golfers, were in favour of the development, with a number writing in support of the developer's plans to remediate the parkland, which was reconstructed over landfill.
One ratepayer said in his submission that the community could not "delude" themselves the area was pristine, noting that many years of dumping had cause contamination.
"The developer's proposal remediates the land and creates many new and improved public facilities, as well as creating jobs and many much needed affordable homes," he wrote.