The Planning Minister, Frank
Sartor, released the built environment plan yesterday, which
he said would encourage economic growth in the area and create up to 18,000
jobs.
The plan includes a $6 million pedestrian and cycle bridge
to link Australian Technology Park
with North Eveleigh, replacing a controversial
tunnel proposed in the draft plan in February.
Other changes include the preservation of the Marian Street
Park near Redfern station
after a campaign by local residents. In the original plan, it was to be the
site of an 18-storey office block.
Towers of up to 18 storeys will still be allowed on the
other side of Gibbons Street,
and a new town centre will be created around the station.
But the Aboriginal Housing Company, which owns the land at
the Block on Eveleigh Street,
says the increased residential density allowed at its site was much less than
that allowed in similar areas in Redfern.
The limits put on the site by the Redfern-Waterloo Authority
have dashed the company’s plan to build 62 new homes for Aborigines on the
Block.
“Really, it’s about what everyone else is getting …
that’s the most poignant issue here,” said Peter
Valilis, the company’s project manager.
The community group REDWatch agreed that the Block’s revised
density was still insufficient, but said that otherwise the final plan had
included several improvements.
A spokesman, Geoff Turnbull, described the decision to
preserve Marian Street Park
as “possibly the biggest win for the community … because there’s so
little open space in the inner city”.
New plans to convert the former Redfern court house and
police station into a $10 million community health centre also “showed the
Government has been prepared to made some positive concessions”, he said.
An artist’s impression of the footbridge linking Australian Technology
Park with North
Eveleigh. Photo: Oculus