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Ku-ring-gai Draft Green Grid Strategy

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online community engagement

CONSULTATION NOW CLOSED

Ku-ring-gai Council has developed a draft Green Grid Strategy as part of the Sydney Green Grid initiative and is seeking community feedback.

The Green Grid aims to connect key areas throughout the region, including public and private open spaces, national parks, bushland, suburbs, local centres and neighbouring local government areas (LGAs).

About the strategy

The draft Ku-ring-gai Green Grid Strategy outlines the strategic context and vision and objectives for a Green Grid across the council area.

In simple terms, the Green Grid can be described as “a network of corridors to connect green spaces and centres”. These corridors are made up of paths, bike lanes, trails, and vegetation. This means they serve the dual purpose of allowing people to walk or use active transport to get between open spaces and centres and serve as ecological corridors to promote biodiversity.

The draft Strategy also shows a series of proposed of Regional, and Suburban routes, and Local and Trail Links, along with the evidence base to support these proposed links.

Objectives of the Green Grid in Ku-ring-gai

1) Increased canopy cover across the LGA

Ku-ring-gai benefits from a well-established and extensive urban tree canopy. Pressures from development, climate change and risk mitigation all impact on how this can thrive and expand. Clear targets for the delivery of an improved urban forest canopy are essential for ensuring the longevity and success of our urban forest. Green Grid projects are fundamental to achieving this.

2) A consolidated active transport network providing comfortable walking and cycling routes

Active transport is critical in sustainable progress towards meeting climate change mitigation targets. Council is pursuing opportunities to develop the best possible links that provide the infrastructure to support both walking and cycling transport options. Integral to the comfort of these routes is shade and an aesthetically pleasing environment, which co-ordinated street tree planting as part of the Green Grid can deliver.

3) Walkable connections between points of interest in the LGA

Local Centres, historic sites, parks and recreation facilities all provide points of interest within the LGA which residents want to access. The Ku-ring-gai Green Grid will endeavour to make walking the preferred way to get to, from and between these points by improving green infrastructure interventions along these routes, ensuring they are shaded, pleasant and accessible.

4) Enhanced biodiversity and riparian corridors

Fundamental to the Green Grid is the enhancement and protection of our existing natural systems. These need to be supported and expanded wherever possible. The balance needs to be struck between creating new connections to re-link patches of bushland and allowing the appropriate level of access to sensitive areas.

Routes hierarchy

Draft routes – suburban

Suburban routes have been selected to provide connections along routes that link key destinations and are desirable to walk along. Determining which road was selected over another included reviewing movement mapping showing the frequency of use by people walking or cycling.

Topography, existing footpaths, and multiple destinations along a route such as schools or shops helped to determine its selection. See the draft strategy for more information.

Draft routes – local

Local links are more fine grain and may be as straightforward as “How do I get from the park to the coffee shop?”. They also provide the missing links between larger scale routes. These routes are a key driver for active transport and encouraging people to avoid taking the car for a short trip. This promotes a healthy lifestyle and social cohesion – getting active improving physical health outcomes and stopping to chat with a neighbour improving mental and social outcomes.

Draft routes – trails

Trail connections are tracks through natural areas. Many of these are existing and may only require minimal interventions to improve them such as resurfacing and interpretive signage. These include walking tracks, fire trails and designated bike tracks. Fire trails are managed in accordance with National Parks and Wildlife Service guidelines.

Grid components

Transforming these routes into green corridors will include the following key components

Street trees

Street trees

Street tree planting - new trees will be planted on streets where there are opportunities, focussing on those areas with low canopy cover.

Footpaths and bike lanes

Footpaths and bike lanes

Whilst the aim is to work with routes that already have existing infrastructure, where new footpaths, shared paths or bike lanes need to be built this will be co-ordinated with street tree and under planting, passive irrigation, traffic calming,...

Verge gardens

Verge gardens

Verge and median planting - wherever possible, layered, biodiverse native planting will be incorporated

Cable bundling

Cable bundling

Aerial cable bundling or undergrounding of power - where undergrounding of power is cost-prohibitive, aerial cable bundling will be incorporated to provide increased opportunity for canopy trees.

Rain gardens

Rain gardens

Water sensitive urban design treatments - rain gardens to capture and filter stormwater run-off, passive irrigation such as breaks in kerbs, and swales.

Signage

Signage

Interpretive signage - signs along routes that highlight culturally significant information around first nations history wand native fauna and flora

Read the Draft Green Grid Strategy

Consultation closed on 12 March. We are now analysing the results.

Next steps

Community input is vital to our Green Grid Strategy. Feedback from this public exhibition be used for finalise the draft for adopting by Council.

After adopting this draft, we'll conduct ward-by-ward consultations to refine proposed routes, including onsite meetings in local parks to understand how residents move through their neighbourhoods and where access improvements are needed.

The action plan will prioritise routes that deliver multiple benefits - from ecological to cultural - with implementation details developed collaboratively with the community. The final plan will specify route locations, required infrastructure, delivery timeframes, funding sources and responsible teams.

Document Library

Your questions answered

The aim of the Ku-ring-gai Green Grid is to facilitate the connection of key areas of public and private open space, national parks and bushland, suburbs, key local and neighbourhood centres and adjacent Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The Ku-ring-gai Green Grid firstly considered the Sydney Green Grid, developed by the NSW Government in collaboration with local councils. Ku-ring-gai falls within the North District of the Sydney Green Grid.

Not all suggested Sydney Green Grid routes have been adopted (such as where a route has the potential to harm a sensitive bushland or biodiversity area).

The Ku-ring-gai Green Grid was then further developed in Council’s Local Strategic Planning Statement.

Council then undertook an analysis of local opportunities and constraints, to develop specific routes outlined in the draft Strategy.

The key opportunities included routes which provided easy access, could utilise existing infrastructure and which incorporated significant points of interest and destinations.

Constraints included routes which had a steep topography, had narrow infrastructure corridors and where the user environment was not attractive and/or pleasant.

No. The strategy will be implemented as budget becomes available.

Yes.

Later in 2025, Council will be undertaking more targeted consultation on a ward-by-ward basis to further refine the draft strategy’s proposed routes and inform the action and implementation plan.

Any significant street-specific changes, such as traffic calming or the introduction of cycling routes, would separately be subject to community engagement.

No. At this stage, Council has only prepared a list of the types of improvements which could be implemented on certain routes.

More detailed design work would take place before any of these proposed improvements were suggested in specific areas. If significant, community engagement would also take place in relation to these improvements.

It is expected a report will be prepared for Council’s consideration, including the outcomes of community feedback, in mid-2025.

Community members will have the opportunity to address Councillors, at Council’s public forum, before the meeting.

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Project Timeline

  • Public exhibition of Draft Green Grid Strategy - LIVE Closes Wed 12 March
  • Green Grid Strategy adopted by Council - June 2025
  • Community workshops by Ward/Suburb – Late 2025
  • Implementation of Green Grid Strategy – ongoing

Enquiries

  • Fleur Rees
    Senior Landscape Architect
    Ku-ring-gai Council

    P: 9424 000 E: frees@krg.nsw.gov.au