From Plans to Reality!

The Wish List Comes Alive

Two of the key areas villagers voted on as important were Beautification and a Village Playground for families and kids.  

Work Beginning Soon on Koolyangarra

And thanks to the fine efforts of Deena Lane, Chair of the Eco and Beautification Subcommittee, the Koolyangarra Reserve is soon to undergo a major make-over!

Check back here soon for our draft plans for this great village asset!

Johns River 2010:

150 Years of Village Life

To celebrate 150 Years of Village Life on the Mid North Coast, the JRCPA has released it's master plan for the village, based on extensive input from all villagers attending four big public community forums in 2007 and 2008. 

 

The Village Wish List

SIGNAGE   BEAUTIFICATION  SPEED LIMITS   LAND RELEASE   PLAYGROUND   GARBAGE BINS

Our "Wish List", the Village Future core issues, involve urban design, amenities and improvements in the main areas of the village.

The Wish List was made at the Inaugural Meeting of the Association and has been slowly developed over the months since as community members, businesses and residents have had their input. 

Signage

Moving forward and leading up to Bypass of the Village – The residents have indicated that very effective signage leading up to the village – from both north and south bound directions will be necessary to ensure the village and businesses in the village remain viable.

The Village is both the gateway to the Manning and Hastings and both RTA and Council(s) have a responsibility to ensure that this is achieved. This signage would also indicate services available in the town and links to Tourism and ‘hinterland’ attraction and services also. We do not want to see the town become a ‘ghost town’ – similar to Coopernook.

Another item in relation to signage would be to have a Tourist information Sign – highlighting the area, attractions, places to stay, etc. This would ideally be located in the village where passing traffic – post bypass could view. A central location could be at the local community hall OR it could be located in the rest area described in Point 2.

The issue of having clear signage for ambulances has also been raised, due to a recent reported failure of ambulance staff to locate the village and an accident next to the former service station.

Beautification

Moving forward and leading up to the Bypass of the Village  - the streetscape will be vitally important to attract visitors into the village and of course utilise services, amenities and shop locally.

To achieve this – a complete Main Street Program requires adoption to create a new rest area with toilets and attractive and inviting surroundings –  Here people can ‘Stop Revive Survive’ and then come through the village, buy something and then continue on their journey.

Beautification will also involve taking pride in the local gardens in the village - landscaping some areas and a general tidy up of overgrown/non maintained areas that are currently in existence. 

Having a theme for the village will also attract visitors and looking at local heritage – timber, logging and dairy – various stands of native trees and shrubs could line the sides and centre of the through road into the village. There is sufficient carriage way to achieve this balance. A safety refuge island could also be placed in the centre to protect children from passing traffic. Curbing and Guttering of streets in the village would also assist with the beautification.

Speed Limits

Leading up to and post Bypass – reducing the speed limit on Stewarts River Road from 90kph to 50kph to ensure safety of school children existing from buses and crossing the road.

In the main section of the village – reducing the limit from 70kph to 50kph and possibly impose a 40km/hr speed zone during ‘school zone’ times. Post Bypass – all road to be reduced to 50kph at all times.

Release of Land

As a post bypass initiative – the release of existing Crown land – mainly to the south of the village for the expansion of the village. This would support the current primary school, local shop, tavern and community markets.

There are presently various blocks facing John Street that would be ideal for development. One consideration is water and sewerage augmentation. Discussions with GTCC, Mid Coast Water and the State Planning Authority would be required to ensure this becomes a top priority for the village.

Public Lands for Community Use -- There are also odd pockets of Crown Land along the existing road corridor at the western ends of Station and John Streets, highly suitable for parks development. 

Gary Doust with the Taree Lands Office has indicated that there are already existing land title claims (under the 1983 act entitling local lands councils to make the claims) on about half of the lands across from and just north of this community hall.  

The RTA used it’s powers to take half of this Crown land for the new highway, but did not have the foresight to similarly acquire the other half of that lot (Lot 125 running from Bulley’s Road to opposite Royan Street).    Without the RTA taking full control of this lot, it would take about 10 years including lengthy and costly appeals for Council to gain this lot.

However, once RTA hands over land from the old corridor, Council will have direct control of about half of that area northern forested area, including a nicely located property in the middle of the reserve across from the hall.

Playground for Children

There has been a lack of a dedicated playground for the village for many years due to the removal of the old and uninsurable set of swings at the community hall.  Happily, funds have been allocated to Council from the state, and work is underway to provide a playground for village families in the near future.  

As there is limited GTCC land in the village, the Hall Trust is working on an arrangement between the Dept of Lands and GTCC to ensure a solution is found.

Village youth are being consulted under our Youth Activities Subcommittee to flesh out plans for public bike facilities, including bike pathways and for the younger crowd, some bike fun areas.  The ‘skate park’ idea was tabled due to noise concerns.

Public Garbage Bins

At present there is a distinct lack of adequate rubbish disposal in the village. The village is looking for more GTCC bins so visitors to the village can place their rubbish therein – as opposed to filling up resident’s bins.

Suggested locations could be at the John’s River Community Shop, the Community Hall (in park area) or located near the Tavern.

The Life of the Plan!

A Long Road — Behind Us!

— And Yet More Ahead of Us!

After nearly 10 years of community consultation, the end is getting closer

· December 1999:  The first of eleven Community Focus Groups (through July 2005) brought community members to the table with the RTA/Alliance.  Locals Joe Malvicino, Daintree Gerrand, Col Anderson, Rod Heath,  Alan Kennedy, Merv Isaacs, and Brian Fletcher represented the Johns River/Stewarts River community.

· May 2001:  The RTA establishes smaller Values Management Workshops in each community, including one in Johns River, which met at the School.

· March 2002:  Johns River representatives explored school bus stopping, and  separation of the Stewarts River Road intersection into two “T”s for safety reasons (the roundabout option had not been considered at that point). 

· July 2002:  Grade-separated interchange considered for Johns River for safety, and bus lay-bys promised every 1km by Arup.

· September 2002:  The Greater Taree City Council meets with the Johns River community to discuss bypass-related issues, signage and streetscape design.

· June 2003: Rod Heath (current Progress Association Management Committee member) joins the RTA Focus Group.  Rod serves today on the Community Info Group, making Rod the longest continually-serving Johns River community member.

· July 2005:  To conform to RTA policy to limit the number of intersection points, Bulleys Road is realigned to join up at the Johns River roundabout, avoiding trucks turning southbound. Environmental issues and EIS report discussed.

· February 2006:  Submission report prepared after final EIS.

· December 2006:  Approval for the RTA to upgrade granted.

· August 2007:  With final Ministerial approval, the project proceeds, and the Community Liaison Group forms under the new Alliance of the RTA, Theiss and Parsons-Brinkerhoff.  Community members meet at the hall to elect a new committee for the Progress Association (which operated previously from 1947—1983). 

· September 2007:  The JRCPA Bypass Corridor Subcommittee researches the 8-year planning and community consultation process with Johns River residents, and liaises with the community to assist with final villager submissions to the RTA. 

· October 2007:  The JRCPA addresses the Greater Taree City Council and Council agrees to assist with urban design for the village centre post-bypass. JRCPA assists the Community to make submissions to the RTA on the proposed bypass project by 17 October 2007.  The first Public Community Forum at the hall gathers opinions and gets info from the RTA and Council. Bypass Corridor Subcommittee reports on the long history of consultations

· December 2007:   The first Association General Members Meeting explores Village Plan options with worksheets for amenities, traffic flow, and names for streets and bridges.  Progress Association delegates meet with Council and the RTA at the first Post-Bypass Committee, and community issues presented for consideration.

· February 2008:  Our second Community Forum   refined the Village Wish-List, with “Topic Stations” set up in the hall where all could write their ideas.  Then all assembled (about 55 villagers) voted on 20 main issues.  For example, the vote to put the toilets at the hall was passed by 94%, and to include change rooms and showers by 92%.  All these objectives were presented to the Johns River Post-Bypass Committee with RTA and Council, to communicate all the points important to villagers.

· April 2008:  Chaired by current Management Committee member, then Councillor Richard Wilson, our first AGM  saw a new Management Committee elected and the agenda presented.

· July 2008:  “The Plan” Community Forum (see photo at right) showing villagers the first draft from the urban design firm Andrews.Neil UDG, and the Post-Bypass Committee.  The designers gathered comments from the community before going back to work on a final version for Council present to villagers.

· November 2008:  The Village Plan, after over a year of community consultation by the Progress Association and Council, is put on public display for comment. 

· March 2009: Council approves the Village Plan and the Johns River Implementation Group, to stage and fund the key elements of the plan. 

 

 

Koolyangarra

The Koolyangarra Reserve is on track for its facelift!

As reported in our second edition of the JRJ, the small bush reserve on the corner of Station Street and the Pacific highway, known as ‘Koolyangarra’, will soon receive much needed rejuvenation.

The JRCPA Eco Sub-Committee Chair, Deena Lane recently hosted an onsite meeting with Glen Rennie, CEO of the Taree Purfleet Local Aboriginal Lands Council (PTLALC), Sheree Quinlivan, Principal of  Johns River Public School and JRCPA Committee Members Chris Bawn.

As the reserve is owned by the local Biripi people, approval from the PTLALC is required prior to any works being commenced.

The group reviewed what was a well-kept area complete with seating and native plants, developed by the Johns River School children back in the mid 1980’s.  Mr Rennie was shown how the years of minimal maintenance in the reserve has lead to many weed species taking hold with seating structures and native plants now gone.

See more Koolyangarra photos in the Village Gallery Now

The JRCPA Eco Committee has been working on plans for the rejuvenation of the reserve, which will be done in conjunction with the Johns River School.

The plans were presented to Mr Rennie and he has given the design his ‘tick of approval’. The plan of design and management for the reserve will include new seating, a new wooden amphitheatre for children’s story time, new earthen mounds, which will be landscaped with bird attracting native plants, and a new pathway circuit. New logs designating its boundaries will also be sourced to add the finishing touches.
Work in the reserve will commence in the new year with the clearing out of weeds species.
Subsequent steps will include the creation of the mounds, planting of the native species of flora and acquisition of the seating and bench materials.
The Johns River School Principal, Ms Sheree Quinlivan is excited that the area, which was once created by the school children some 20 years ago, has the chance to again become an area under their care.

We are looking for assistance by way of materials, machinery or labour to assist with the rejuvenations works. If you can assist, please contact either Deena Lane or Chris Bawn on the number on the back page of this issue.

Stage II of the plan, to be considered in the second quarter of 2009, will include restoration work and landscaping of the pedestrian bridge and walking track area between the Johns River General Store and the Public School. In the interim, however, the JRCPA Management Committee has been in discussions with Greater Taree City Council to clean up the area to remove overgrown weeds and to ensure the safety of pedestrians walking to and from the Village and school precinct. 

 

Action Items

From time to time residents request improvements and amenities from Council or the RTA, and we help facilitate these requests.

Action Item	Status
Speed Zones on Stewarts River Road	Council advises of new signs to be erected and RTA to consider a reduction in speed limit.
More Garbage Bins for Village	Letter sent to Council, Council promises more bins in Village

Policy and Procedure

The Village Wish List is the cornerstone of our policy formulation, and gives guidance to our management committee in their additional capacity as members  of and delegates to the RTA and GTCC Council committees.

Our Management Committee Members Glen Ferrero, Bruce Shaw and Rod Heath, as well as resident Tony Galati, all attend the meetings on Wharf Road with the RTA, and Chris Bawn and Bruce Shaw trek down to Taree for the Council's Post-Bypass committee to represent ALL of Johns River.

Do you feel something more should be included?  Or do you just have an opinion?  Let us know!

 The First Urban Design Draft Plan!

A Great Meeting at the hall, 24 Jul 08

It was a truly great reception for the new plans for the village centre, drawn up by urban design consultants Andrews.Neil UDG from Gosford.  

Villagers were indeed pleasantly surprised to find that the agreed community objectives were provided for on the plan, and the Management Committee of the JRCPA audited the plan against our Village Wish List, with very good results. 

The Johns River Post-Bypass Committee of Council have been working with Andrews.Neil urban design consultants on the preparation of a draft of Post- Bypass Traffic Facilities and Urban Design Plan for the village.

Our representatives on this committee, Bruce Shaw and Chris Bawn have been working closely with the Urban Design Consultants to ensure the elements discussed at previous Community Forums have been adopted.

 

Previous Printed Update with Wish List:

See our Meeting page for other notices

 

Past Community Forums

The JRCPA Held Public Community Forums throughout 2007 & 2008

• Community Forum 27 Oct 07

• Community Forum 1 Dec 07

• Community Forum 2 Feb 08

• Community Meeting 24 Jul 08

Your Sketches and Ideas Were Great!

Thanks is due to the many village residents who returned the recent survey requesting names for village roads and bridges!

The Favourites:  

Naming the realigned main road through the village as "Johns River Drive", with John Stewart and John Oxley getting the most attention for bridge names!

Roads and Bridges

Road and Bridge Names and Urban Design Options were discussed at our management Committee Meeting on 22 December 2007, which was used to come up with a short list to use at the Community Public Forum on the 2nd of February 2008. 

Download a copy of the flyers from that meeting:

Front	Reverse

 

From February Forum to July Forum!

It was a successful meeting on 8 February 2008 as our Johns River Community Progress Association delegates Chris and Bruce presented the results of our 2 February Public Community Forum to the GTCC Post-Bypass Committee.

Since then, our objectives have been handed over to the urban design group Andrews.Neil, and we should see some first drafts in the near future of what our village might look like post-bypass.

We also had a special Community Forum at 6:30pm on the 24th of July at the Johns River Community Hall to go over options talk with the design consultants to understand the planning process more, including a peek at the first draft of our Village Plan.

What Did Council Get? 

You can see the full JRCPA Presentation to the Post-Bypass Committee here!