Forum –
With respect to the application for a boarding house at Toukley (“Proposed Toukley boarding house open for public comment again”, Chronicle p26 June 16)), I think that some of the objections raised are completely specious.
Whatever reasons there might be for rejecting the proposal, a comparison between the incidence of boarding house rooms in metropolitan Sydney and Toukley is not one of them.
Boarding houses provide a particular kind of accommodation, and the need for them has to be weighed against the population pattern of the area, not against some completely different conurbation with different characteristics.
Similarly, to claim that there is the alternative of studio apartments in other developments is fundamentally misleading.
A studio apartment is not a boarding house room, the costs are different to start with, so this accommodation doesn’t fill the shelter niche aimed at by boarding houses.
Furthermore, to say that there is ample affordable housing in Toukley, without this boarding house, is to fly in the face of all known data on housing affordability.
All information on housing affordability suggests that boarding house accommodation is badly needed throughout the whole city.
What is lacking is properly designed and located boarding houses.
If objectors can demonstrate the undesirability of this particular project on rational and relevant grounds, I wish them every success, but let us stick to facts.
Obviously, the developer, who is experienced in this area, thinks that the project will properly meet a need, so it is worth trying to satisfy the community that any reasonable requirements are covered, but unreasonable positions are not valid.
Email, June 20
Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy