Waterloo Options released – REDWatch

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Thursday night, as REDWatch was
meeting, news came through that LAHC was releasing the options for the
redevelopment of the Waterloo Public Housing Estate. The key documents are all
on the
Waterloo page of the Communities Plus website. The main links are:

The individual downloads for the
option mud maps are:

It should be noted that the
online options are single page representations of how the buildings, uses and
heights of the development might be arranged. Much more detail will follow in
September and October when the community has an opportunity to engage with LAHC
in testing of these options.

REDWatch welcomes the early
release of these outline options. It will create a context for the next phase
of the engagement, which is a series of workshops around key studies by
consultants that have informed the options. The NAB’s Waterloo Redevelopment
Group (WRG) and Groundswell have negotiated a gap of six to eight weeks between
the release of the studies, and when LAHC will start talking to the community
about the options. In effect, the outline of the three options has been
released at the beginning of this time rather than just before options’
testing.

The study summaries have not
been released with the options. We understand that they will be made available
next week to people who register for the workshops. If they are not put onto
the Communities Plus website, REDWatch will post them on our website. The
Waterloo Newsletter states: “We have completed the baseline study reports on
what is currently on the estate and FACS will be hosting presentations on some
of the baseline studies. If you want to come and meet some of the team who are
conducting the site studies, please come along to any of the sessions.
Registrations will be open shortly at www.communitiesplus.com.au 
or RSVP to Waterloo Connect, call 1800 738 718 or email waterlooconnect@facs.nsw.gov.au”.
There will be limited space in the study sessions so we encourage those
interested to register early.

The NAB’s Waterloo Redevelopment
Group and Groundswell have been pushing for a high profile launch of the
options to try and re-engage tenants in discussions during the options phase.
It was a common refrain from people not involved in the “Visioning” to say they
would wait until they saw what the government planned to do.

The early release of the three
options provides some space for people to hear about what is on the table, to
talk to their friends and neighbours, and to get ready their thoughts about
what they want to see before talking to LAHC and its consultants about the
options. Those who have been campaigning to keep Matavai and Turanga will be
pleased to see that Option 1 retains the buildings. The downside of the release
is that there may be an increase in anxiety for some people as they see plans,
which no longer contain their homes, or for people who live in the parts of the
estate marked for early staging in 1-6 years. It will be important that social
supports be available for tenants who may become anxious because the options
are now public.

City
of Sydney and Waterloo

The Waterloo Options all come in
around the government’s target density of 7000 units. It was pleasing to see
Lord Mayor Clover Moore come out questioning the density proposed in the
Waterloo Estate Options and asking the Council CEO to review the proposals. You
can support Clover’s concern about the density proposed on her website post on Protect The
Waterloo Community. Clover’s comments were especially welcome after the
relative silence from Council over the UrbanGrowth Waterloo Metro proposal.
Clover’s call on the density is in line with the concerns Council raised a
couple of years ago about the density for the Waterloo redevelopment. Since
then Council has become involved raising its concerns inside the process and
there has been little said publically on the density issue.

For some time we have been
expressing our concern about the lack of public voice from City of Sydney in
relation to the Redfern and Waterloo developments. Council’s involvement in the
formal process has limited its ability to speak up outside the tent. When
Council entered the MOU with UrbanGrowth NSW we pushed for a part of Council to
remain outside the tent, but this did not appear to have been carried through
to the arrangements around the SSPs until now. The City serves on the Waterloo
State Significant Precincts Project Review Panel and the State Significant
Precinct Waterloo Project Working Group. These give senior council officers
input into the process. You can get an idea of what that involves from these
answers to questions by Councillor Phelps on City of
Sydney and Waterloo Metro Quarter Meetings.

We are not saying that Council
should not be involved with DPE and UGDC within the tent. What we are saying is
that there needs to be a part of Council, such as the Office of the Lord Mayor,
which can raise the kinds of issues Council would raise if its officers were not
constrained by their involvement. We await with interest the response of
Council Officers through the Council CEO to the Lord Mayor’s request for an
assessment of the options.

Taken from REDWatch email update 5 August 2018.