Updated ,first published
In March this year, as the state’s transport officials were weighing a Sydney council’s proposal to close three roads and sell them to a billionaire property developer, they stumbled upon a webpage that stopped them in their tracks.
The developer, Iris Capital, had launched a slick promotional website to consult the community about its plans for the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of St Ives Shopping Village.
It was here Transport for NSW staffers say they first learnt the proposed changes included a new intersection with traffic lights on Mona Vale Road. Carrying upwards of 37,000 vehicles a day, the road is one of the north shore’s busiest arterial thoroughfares.
In a flurry of correspondence, Ku-ring-gai Council’s consultant confirmed the intersection not only was planned, but it was the ultimate linchpin of the road closure proposal it had floated with Transport for NSW four months prior.
The chronology of events has raised serious questions about why the state’s roads agency was in the dark for months about a crucial element of the proposal being actively canvassed by council and Iris Capital, a pub, property and pokies empire belonging to billionaire Sam Arnaout.
Once Transport for NSW officials understood the full extent of what was planned, they fired off a missive to council, which this masthead has obtained via freedom of information laws.
The letter made it clear that Transport for NSW could not assess the road closure application until it had evidence that the proposed intersection was safe and feasible.
The letter highlighted that the agency held veto powers over the proposed signalised intersection.
“Mona Vale Road is identified as a major movement and freight corridor, and its ongoing operational performance must be maintained,” warned the April 2026 letter from senior bureaucrat James Hall.
The developer and the council have defended their actions, pointing out the intersection had been clearly available to see in community consultation material posted on the council’s website last year.
“Transport for NSW has not raised any of these matters with council directly,” a Ku-ring-gai Council spokeswoman said.
But one of the city’s leading road safety auditors was baffled by the sequence of events.
Craig McLaren, a veteran traffic engineer of 40 years who has assessed the proposal on behalf of an objector, said it was not standard practice for the public to be consulted about changes to a classified state road before Transport for NSW was briefed.
In a report lodged with council, McLaren Traffic Engineering warned that the proposed newly created public road connecting to Mona Vale Road posed genuine safety risks because it would be located inside a curve, with sight lines limited by a proposed bus stop and no deceleration lane to minimise collisions.
“Considering the above safety issues, queuing impacts onto Mona Vale Road, it is unlikely that Transport for NSW would approve a new public road at this location,” the report said.
Iris Capital splashed out a record-breaking $450 million for the top-performing neighbourhood shopping centre and 12 adjoining sites in April 2025.
It launched a website to spruik its plans for a “human-centred market and cultural experience,” which will feature a seven-screen cinema and a tavern with a sprawling gambling den.
The developer told Ku-ring-gai Council its plans were only commercially feasible if it could buy and shut down Denley Lane, Cowan Lane and Durham Avenue, three council-owned streets around the shopping centre.
The centre’s former owner had already secured council’s support to put the road closures on public exhibition five months earlier, with council staff at the time highlighting that the closed roads were of “significant value” and required maximum public benefit if sold.
In November 2025, Transport for NSW was invited to provide feedback on the road closure plan in the same month community consultation material was published on the council’s website.
The process was managed by consultancy Lands Advisory Services, a third party engaged to help the council determine whether to push ahead with the road closures.
A Ku-ring-gai Council spokeswoman said the community consultation material “clearly shows traffic lights” on Mona Vale Road.
An Iris Capital spokesman also pointed this masthead to the same material which has been available online since last November. Five out of the six plans posted online showed the proposed signalised intersection, the developer noted.
The Ku-ring-gai Council spokeswoman said the intersection was additionally a longstanding feature of a high-level concept plan that the council developed in 2022.
“TfNSW has been aware of and liaised with council over this concept plan for a number of years,” the spokeswoman said. She added that council understood Iris Capital had been liaising directly with Transport for NSW over the traffic lights.
The spokeswoman said the council had not vetted, endorsed or approved any material on Iris Capital’s website.
After Transport for NSW staffers discovered the proposed intersection on that website, council’s consultant erased any doubt that the two projects were inextricably linked.
“Council will not be in a position to consider closing Denley Lane [or] Durham Avenue if the new intersection will not be permitted,” said a March 2026 email from Lands Advisory Services director Craig Barnes.
Barnes requested that Transport for NSW outline any information it would require to consider approving the intersection.
Transport for NSW senior land use planner James Hall laid out a rigorous list of requirements, including traffic modelling, a valid development consent, a concept road design, a swept path analysis and projected traffic volumes.
A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said the onus was on the developer to provide studies to demonstrate the safety and feasibility of its proposal.
She confirmed the developer had not conducted a transport impact assessment, but one was expected to be undertaken as part of any future development application.
She added Transport for NSW’s baseline position was that the roads should remain open with unrestricted public access to avoid adverse impacts on businesses.
Mona Vale Road is a long-standing pinch point between the north shore and northern beaches, with a half-a-billion-dollar upgrade under way.
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