Our vision for the region
Drive up Bells Line of Road and you can feel it: the moment the city lets go. Paddocks open up, the escarpment rises, and the Hawkesbury valley spreads out below. Koalas, a genetically unique population, still move through these hills. This is one of the last places where Sydney's sprawl gives way to real countryside, and people build lives here precisely because of that.
We believe growth and that character can co-exist when growth is done smartly.
What smart growth looks like to us
Thriving villages
New shops, services and housing belong in and around our existing villages and centres, places with the roads, water and sewer to support them.
Protected rural land
Farms, large lots and open landscapes are the identity of this region, not vacant land waiting for a rezoning. Rural land should stay rural.
Safe roads
Development should never outpace the roads that serve it. Safety on our high-speed rural corridors comes before any commercial convenience.
Wildlife corridors intact
Our koalas, birdlife and bushland need connected habitat. Smart growth plans around wildlife corridors, not through them.
Beyond one development
The Kurmond proposal is our first campaign, but our purpose is bigger. Significant development pressure is coming to the Hawkesbury in the years ahead, including very large residential proposals along the river. We intend to be a constructive, informed, ongoing voice: engaging early with council and planners, contributing local knowledge and professional expertise, and making sure residents help shape what comes next rather than react to it.
That's the alliance in Smart Growth Alliance — neighbours with different skills and one shared commitment to this place.