City of Sydney’s planning proposal for Waterloo South – 11 February

The City of
Sydney (CoS) Council has released its proposal for the planning controls to
govern the proposed Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) redevelopment of
Waterloo South. The main Council document is Public
Exhibition – Planning Proposal – Waterloo Estate (South) – Sydney Local
Environmental Plan 2012 Amendment, item 2. PDF 9 MB. You can see more
information, including a fly through, on Council’s website at Planning
proposal: Waterloo estate (south).

REDWatch has
only just seen the documents so we are not in a position to make any assessment
at present. The Council proposal seeks to deliver around the same number of
housing units as LAHC, but it wants 20% of the 70% non-social housing to be
affordable housing. It is seeking to deliver that by conditioning the planning
proposal so that for LAHC to get the maximum number of units on the site it
would need to meet Council’s affordable housing targets and other requirements.
Council is also supporting dedicated “First Nations’ housing”.

To match the
LAHC proposed yield, the Council plan has three high-rises to the south of the
site, but the balance of the site is much lower than what was proposed by LAHC,
and it covers a slightly larger land area with fewer apartments per building.
Council says its proposal will deliver better street level amenity with less
wind and almost three times the amount of deep soil plantings. The smaller park
has shrunk in size but the sunlight access has improved. Council is proposing a
different street layout, which it says will be more accessible, and is
concentrating retail along a widened George Street. Council says it will not
submit its proposal to the Department of Planning until it reaches agreement
with LAHC over the provision of public infrastructure.

Council has
also made public the LAHC proposal for Waterloo South submitted to Council and
all LAHC’s supporting studies. CoS has used these LAHC materials to inform its
proposal which is significantly different to the LAHC proposal in built form.
The main LAHC document is Attachment
B2 Planning Proposal Report – LaHC, item 2. PDF 10 MB

In all 67
documents have been placed on the Council’s
meeting website including all the support studies undertaken by LAHC. At
the end of this section, we have provided direct links to the documents.

The Council
proposal is part of the papers for the Transport, Heritage
and Planning Committee on Monday 15 February 2021 where Councillors will
consider the proposal from Council staff. The proposal is also considered
by the Central Sydney
Planning Committee (CSPC) at 5pm on Thursday 18 February 2021. Community
members can register to address both the committee meeting and the CSPC in line
with the Guidelines
for speakers at council committees.

The proposal
will finally be considered at the Council Meeting on Monday 22 February, however community members are not able to
address the Council meeting.

With these
documents becoming public, it is now possible to see where Council and LAHC
differ in their approaches to planning for the site. These areas of differences
/ contention will obviously be areas that the community might want to comment
upon at the Council Committee meeting, CSPC or when the proposal is formally
exhibited in many months’ time.

It is important
to understand that the current process is about setting the planning controls
governing land use, height and the amount of floor space allowed. The proposal
also includes a proposed Development Control Plan that would guide final
building design.

The successful
tenderer for the development, which will need to prepare separate Development
Applications to be considered against the finalised planning controls, would
prepare the final designs.

The current
short Council consideration window is to agree on Council’s recommendation to
the NSW Government’s Department of Planning Infrastructure and Environment
(DPIE) as to what should be publically exhibited for feedback.

DPIE then
examines the Council’s proposal and determines what will be publically
exhibited. This usually takes some time. For example the LAHC Build to Rent Proposal
in Redfern was considered by Council at the end of June 2020, but it has yet to
emerge from DPIE for public exhibition. The Waterloo South proposal is larger
and more complex that the Redfern Proposal, so it is unlikely to have a quicker
transit.

Any of the
bodies – Council, CSPC or DPIE – can make changes, so what Council officers
currently propose may not be identical to what the public might see when the
proposal comes back for public exhibition. Following the exhibition, Council
will again assess the proposal and submissions, before recommending a proposal
to DPIE. DPIE will do a final assessment and if it agrees, the new planning
controls for the Waterloo South site will become planning law.

Council has
held briefings for some key Waterloo tenants and other stakeholders.
Groundswell it a meeting with Council last week has also requested briefings
for local NGOs, the full Waterloo Redevelopment Group and for the community vis
a REDWatch meeting.

The Council Documents

The full list
of Council documents can be found on its meeting website here.
Below we have provided links to these documents sorted in a different way to
make them a little easier to find.

The Council
proposal is shown below with Council’s support documents (Attachments A, C
& D)

Public Exhibition – Planning Proposal –
Waterloo Estate (South) – Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 Amendment, item
2. PDF 9 MB

Attachment
A Planning Proposal – Waterloo Estate (South) – Sydney Local Environmental Plan
2012 Amendment, item 2. PDF 15 MB

Attachment
A1(a) Urban Design Study Part 1 – Waterloo Estate (South) – City of Sydney,
item 2. PDF 15 MB

Attachment
A1(b) Urban Design Study Part 2 – Waterloo Estate (South) – City of Sydney,
item 2. PDF 6 MB

Attachment
A2 Environmental Wind Assessment – Waterloo Estate (South), item
2. PDF 3 MB

Attachment
A3 Retail Review – Waterloo Estate (South) – City of Sydney, item
2. PDF 965 KB

Attachment
A4 Community Facilities Peer Review – Waterloo Estate (South), item
2. PDF 15 MB

Attachment
C Draft Waterloo Estate (South) Design Guide, item 2. PDF 5 MB

Attachment
D Draft Sydney Development Control Plan 2012 Amendment – Waterloo Estate
(South), item 2. PDF 7 MB

Interaction
between LAHC and Council on public benefit (Attachment E)

Attachment E Letter of Offer for Public Benefit, item
2. PDF 295 KB

Land and
Housing Corporation (LAHC) Proposal Documents (Attachments B)

Attachment
B Land and Housing Corporation Waterloo South Planning Proposal Request, item
2. PDF 111 KB – Note by Council about Land and Housing Documents

Attachment
B1 Planning Proposal Cover Letter – LaHC, item 2. PDF 162 KB

Attachment B2 Planning Proposal Report –
LaHC, item 2. PDF 10 MB (Main LAHC Document)

LAHC
proposal Support Documents and Studies

The documents
below are the attachments to the LAHC proposal above. While numbered
differently by Council, the documents below are in the order of the LAHC main
study attachments.

Attachment
B3 Location of Responses to CoS Checklist and Study Requirements – LaHC, item
2. PDF 616 KB

Attachment
B4 Proposed LEP Maps – LaHC, item 2. PDF 4 MB

Attachment
B5 Proposed Draft Development Control Plan – LaHC, item 2. PDF 2 MB

Attachment
B6 Consistency with Strategic and Statutory Plans – LaHC, item
2. PDF 382 KB

Attachment
B7(a) Urban Design and Public Domain Study 1 – LaHC, item 2. PDF 18
MB

Attachment
B7(b) Urban Design and Public Domain Study 2 – LaHC, item 2. PDF 15
MB

Attachment
B7(c) Urban Design and Public Domain Study 3 – LaHC, item 2. PDF 14
MB