An artist's impression of the Rockdale Masterplan. More development will inevitably cause more issues, a Leader reader writes.

The Rockdale Masterplan is development on steroids. At present there is 517 car parking spaces allocated within the old Target building and behind Bayside Council Offices and in York Street.

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I was informed by the Council Town Planner that the development towers will probably have spaces allocated for non-resident use.

However, I cannot imagine that there will be the quantity for the car parking spaces that are lost. Maybe 5 spots in each tower for free or spaces might come at a price. Can you park there all day at no cost? At the moment you can park on the top level of target all day for free.

Parking in the surrounding streets now is at a premium with many people leaving their cars, boats, trailers, and trucks for more than 28 days as they either have no spots within the apartments already occupied or more than one vehicle.

More development will inevitably cause more issues. Parking across driveways is now frequent. Yes you can call the ranger but on a number of occasions he arrives the next day. Bad luck if you need to get out in an emergency.

Kent Street in Precinct 4 is an extremely narrow street which you need to engage a three point turn in order to go from the bottom part of the street to the top or the reverse.

The reason being there is a rock outcrop separating the street from lower level to higher. The above street is also directly under the M6 tunnel.

Why on earth does this street constitute development where access at this point in time is dangerous? There are signs stating No Parking on Thursday 6am - 9am as the garbage trucks have no hope of traversing the street if cars are parked in those spaces. Yet Bayside Council wants to build three level townhouses in this narrow street.

My thoughts are this plan has been put together too rapidly with no consideration for the infrastructure issues that are currently transpiring and with the advent of more people and vehicles total chaos abounds.

Back-off from closing Bay Street

It was with surprise and dismay that I watched the last Bayside Council meeting on 27 th May, as two Ward 5 councillors, again pursued the closure of Bay Street, Brighton-Le-Sands, from Moate Ave to The Grand Parade.

In 2023 three weekend trial road closures of this area were conducted by Council in February, May and June.

There was great enthusiasm for the trial closures as one councillor imagined transforming this area into something akin to the Manly Esplanade or the like.

Those three trials were an utter and complete failure, I have the photos to prove it, yet that particular councillor repeatedly maintained the trial closures were a success.

In 2025 the closure of Bay Street was raised again by the councillor with support from the same councillor as before. This is despite Bay Street being a gazetted road and the state government not supporting or considering its closure.

Now in 2026 we revisit this "crusade". This is an idea that has already failed twice. The impact of increased traffic on other arterial and residential roads, access to public transport, the aged or less mobile and so on don't appear to be part of this "bigger picture".

I say to all Ward councillors back off, stop wasting both your and council's time and resources, accept the umpire's decision and move on to other matters the residents are concerned about.