What’s the
problem?
A large new workforce and a
significant number of new residents is proposed in the RWA’s Draft
Redfern-Waterloo Built Environment Plan – but no new open space is proposed
except for areas within the Australian Technology Park.
Why does
this matter?
Redfern-Waterloo’s open space
is already well below the standard set in the Environmental Planning and
Assessment Act (EPA Act) of 2.83 hectares per 1,000 people – that’s 28.3 square
metres per person.
Last
May, the figures quoted were “an average of 5.9 square metres per person ……..
in Redfern-Waterloo [which] is below the city average of 6.6 square metres”
(quoted from the Private Members Statement made to the NSW Parliament on 25 May
2005 by Clover Moore, MP).
Whether
the standard used is the one in the EPA Act, or you simply compare
Redfern-Waterloo with the rest of the City, the only conclusion is that the
area has too little open space.
Even
that is not the end of the story, as too little of the open space is local open space – and it’s not good
enough for the RWA to suggest that district and regional parks can fill the
gaps.
What’s wrong with trying to make district
and regional parks do the work of local open space?
This suggestion ignores the
realities of daily life in Redfern-Waterloo.
Half the households do not own a car and so rely on public transport for
access to district and regional open space.
However, the local public transport services are inadequate for this
purpose, as they primarily pass through the area on their way to or from the
city. This creates open space access
problems for people who are elderly and/or infirm, and for families with young
children.
Residents
are therefore forced to seek more indoor (and passive) recreation pursuits, or –
if they do have a car – to generate greenhouse and other negative effects by
driving to wherever district or regional open space is located (assuming they
can park when they get there!).
What do we
need?
What we need is local, usable, public open space – and
not just bits of paved/landscaped area in the town centre, or private open
space within or around new apartment blocks.
How do we
get it?
By persuading the RWA to
create zoned public open space in
the Built Environment Plan.
Why does
open space need to be zoned in?
Because unless it is zoned
in, we’re unlikely to get it.
Developer
contributions are not the answer for several reasons:
§
unless areas are
zoned for open space, decisions on the location of any new open space will be
made on an ad hoc basis
§
developer
contributions, if used to buy land for open space, won’t help Redfern-Waterloo
get above its current standard of open space provision, as NSW Land and
Environment Court judgements (in relation to councils) mean that developers
can’t be levied for more open space than the existing per capita average in the
council area
§
the contributions
could be applied to the upgrade of existing open space rather than the creation
of new open space.
What can we
do about it?
Write to the RWA by 5.00 pm on Friday, 14 April 2006
letting it know how important local open space is to you – and why – and that
you want it zoned into the Built Environment Plan.
For More Information Contact
REDWatch – www.redwatch.org.au