“ I want to convey my strong support of all participants, especially local residents, who are developing the Sustainable Communities Plan for Chippendale. I am strongly aware of the Sustainable Communities Plan and was very pleased to support the engagement of Michael Mobbs, a local resident and leading authority, in its development, while I was a City of Sydney Councillor.

As a long-term inner city resident and with a background in urban horticulture and now the food industry, I am a strong advocate of urban sustainability – or striking the best possible balance in our communities of environmental, social and economic outcomes.

A critical component of striking this balance – and particularly ensuring we are building cohesive communities and sustainable environments – is the involvement of the community at the planning stages. Communities have amazing knowledge and resources that governments need to do a better job of acknowledging and with working with. That’s why I am particularly excited about the Sustainable Communities Plan for Chippendale’s inclusive, community-based process. It can only lead to better results as Chippendale goes forward, especially as it’s population now rapidly grows.

Another important component is a holistic approach that looks at the totality of community life. Here again, I note the Sustainable Communities Plan’s scope is very comprehensive and highly integrated, covering how we live, work and play, and how to make those activities more sustainable and with a minimised footprint. It’s the best way to go when dealing with the complex issues – and opportunities – before our inner city communities.

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I very much look forward to working with you in future, especially as the Sustainable Communities Plan goes to its next phase of development.”

“I strongly support initiatives that improve environment sustainability, and congratulate the team behind the Chippendale Sustainable Communities Plan for the energy and experience they have put into this plan.

It is great to see community proposing action for environmentally sustainable solutions.

This plan is a great example of the saying “it takes a village” and is full of excellent ideas.

The idea of linking the arts to environmental sustainability shows that the Chippendale community is willing to look beyond the obvious. But then, proposing a Sustainable Art project for Chippendale is something we should expect from a suburb that already has a thriving art scene with galleries, artists studios and the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre. If I am elected I am willing to work with the Chippendale community to make this project a reality.

I also support the general principle of planting native species where ever we can.

I am also excited by the proposals for stormwater harvesting, but they will need the involvement of Sydney Water to be implemented. If I am elected I commit to bringing together Sydney Water and the Chippendale community to pursue these proposals.

We must remember the plan is on public exhibition until Friday week – 28 October, and Council will be considering the comments that the community have made on the plan early in the new year.

The whole point of putting the plan on public exhibition was to get your feedback, and the feedback of everyone else in the community, so I don’t want to preempt that..

We also need to understand which actions in the plan are already being carried out by Council, which actions are the responsibility of Council and which ones are the State Government’s responsibility.

I make a commitment tonight that where the State Government has a responsibility, I will advocate for those actions that have community support”

“I am writing, as a Chippendale resident, to support Michael Mobbs’s set of proposals for the management of public spaces in this suburb.

Chippendale, with its limited area, high-density population of residents and commercial and entrepreneurial users, offers a very representative model for testing such important possibilities as the lowering of summer temperatures by street planting (including pop-up median strips) and the use of colour, and for the cutting of energy, water and transport generally. Using indigenous advisers on the sort of trees and shrubs that might be useful for street-planting is original in turning to a source of knowledge that we have previously ignored, and Chippendale, a suburb of low through-traffic, is an ideal place for testing notions about a different balance in our streets between drivers and pedestrians. I look forward to seeing the results of experiments that can only be useful in establishing more sociable and less wasteful ways of our all living together. Some of these proposals will work, others may not, but we have nothing to lose by subjecting the experiment to Council and more general scrutiny.”

“I am writing as an owner of a property in Chippendale, to add my voice to the Plan conceived my Michael Mobbs for Chippendale to become a Sustainable suburb.

The suburb of Chippendale, bounded by heavily trafficked roads and under stress by the University of Technology and the CUB Development, has managed through the efforts of people like Michael Mobbs, to become a cohesive and collegiate neighbourhood. In any other inner City location, it is hardly conceivable that the cooperation of residents could be envisaged at the scale and intensity that is likely in Chippendale.

It is these very pressures that make Chippendale an excellent location for Mr Mobbs suggested improvements and experiments and I commend his draft plan for consideration by Council.”

“I think the current proposal for a sustainable Chippendale as proposed by Michael Mobbs is a wonderful idea and this is the most relevant and suitable suburb for such an experiment. I believe it will be successful in engaging the Chippendale community, as it will articulate through its environmental processes its vision of sustainability. These are potentially wonderful walking and experiential streets that we live and work on.

From my point of view the Art can partner with it to amplify the mechanism to help us reimagine a sustainable city.

I think it is important to find innovative ways to reduce the negative impacts of the cars and pollution. Other cities have done this and I know you are working towards it in the 2030 plan and I really feel Michael is such a figure head for having achieved what he has in this area and we are so fortunate to have him here. I would really like to show and share my support for him.”

“I am writing to support Michael Mobb’s plan to manage public spaces within your council area more sustainably.

For the past few years the residents of Wilga Ave, Dulwich Hill – advised by Michael with ideas he developed in Chippendale – have been transforming our street. We have dug up the concrete verges outside our houses and planted vegetables and trees and have used a watering system on these gardens to stop tens of thousands of litres of storm water ending up in the Cooks River. We compost all our green and paper waste. We have changed the look and feel of our street. We have made it more sustainable. In the future we plan to plant large fruit and nut trees down the centre of our dead-end street to cut down the heat on the bitumen and provide us with food.

We recently won the Origin Energy Sustainability Drive competition, from more than 5000 entries in NSW, and as a result won solar panels for all our houses.

All of this was made possible because Michael inspired us to do what we have done. Along the way we have not only built a beautiful, sustainable street but also a strong community. People now spend more time in their front yards than their back yards, the kids play out on the streets and they all walk to school together. We share lawnmowers, ladders and glasses of Shiraz. This community building has been probably the most satisfying and rewarding part of the entire project.

Isn’t this the sort of thing you want for the City of Sydney?”

“Michael Mobbs has consulted with us on a number of features in the proposed Plan.

I write to confirm that our business would be very interested in taking any steps that reduce our energy and utility costs, and the maintenance and running costs of our business generally.  We would be prepared to invest in infrastructure and improvements to achieve this.

Of course, financial incentives (such as the proposed rate rebate) are welcome.  Just as attractive is the removal of disincentives, such as complicated or time-consuming approval or compliance regimes, which require us to either divert our attention from our business, or to engage consultants to handle it all for us.  These can become significant financial disincentives.

Therefore we support the Plan’s proposals to ease the approval process and provide various incentives, and look forward to Council introducing the Plan.”