A community group in Mona Vale says the suburb’s sewage plant, escape routes and bus services are already stretched, and about 100 residents are taking a year of research to ask for a pause on new apartment rezoning.
Handing Over the Dosier
SOS Save Our Suburb Mona Vale Inc. released its findings on 19 October. Residents will present the dossier to Jacqui Scruby, the Independent MP for Pittwater, at noon Wednesday, 21 October, on the steps of Parliament House. Scruby is due to accept it and speak to the crowd. Coastal engineer Angus Gordon OAM, a former general manager of Pittwater Council, will address the rally, along with campaigners Parry Thomas and Shane Withington. Scruby voted against the state’s reforms and says Mona Vale should be exempt from them.
The state government’s Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy allows more homes near town centres, including terraces, townhouses and low and mid-rise apartments within 800 metres of Mona Vale’s centre. The policy sits in Chapter 6 of the Housing SEPP. The group agrees the suburb needs homes. What it doubts is whether the infrastructure can cope with more people.
The Sewage Question
The group’s first worry is the Warriewood Wastewater Treatment Plant. It says the plant already serves more people than it was designed for. In heavy rain, it says, overflow storage fills within one to two hours, and partly treated wastewater flows out near the surf off Turimetta Head. The plant does release treated wastewater to the ocean through a cliff-face outfall at Turimetta Head. On capacity, though, Sydney Water’s records tell a different story. A 2023 report from the utility found no treatment capacity constraints before 2030.
Picture the Pittwater peninsula on a map. National park reserves wrap around it, and the sea covers the rest. The group calls it a dead end, with a single two-lane main road serving more than 35,000 people. That figure and that description are the group’s own, and other roads, including Barrenjoey Road, also serve the peninsula.
The group argues that more apartments would clash with the state’s bushfire planning direction, known as Direction 4.3. It also cites the Hiatt inquiry, which investigated the 1993-94 bushfires and handed down its report in February 1996. Whether the direction applies to development under Chapter 6 is a legal question, and the government may see it differently. Gordon said apartments built above what he describes as an ageing 1970s sewage outfall, with limited escape routes, put lives at risk. In his view, roads and services should be in place before new residents arrive.
Questions about the B-Line
Mona Vale was included in the policy on the basis that it would have rapid transit. The group says the B-Line shares the road with regular traffic and gets held up at the Spit Bridge and along Military Road. It also says Region 8, the northern beaches bus region, accounts for nearly 30 percent of all bus cancellations in Greater Sydney. The release does not say what period that figure covers. Region 8 has certainly had a rough run. A shortage of high-capacity buses has hit the region since October 2024.
Then there is the cost of living. The group’s calculations suggest a 30 percent rent discount on a new Mona Vale apartment would still take more than 53 percent of an entry-level registered nurse’s take-home pay. Those numbers rest on the group’s own assumptions. NSW affordable housing rules usually work differently, since a household pays no more than 30 percent of its gross income in rent. The group adds that couples who both work in essential jobs may miss out because of income caps. Its view is that the policy favours developers over the workers it is meant to help.
What Residents are Asking For
The group wants Premier Chris Minns and Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully to stop applying Chapter 6 in the area. It asks that the pause stay until an independent audit of infrastructure and emergency evacuation is tabled in Parliament. Convenor John David said the dossier follows what the group understands to be an acknowledgement from Scully that no detailed study of Mona Vale’s ability to handle higher density was done before the rezoning. That claim comes from the group, and no independent source has confirmed it.
Published Date 19-October-2026
