Waterloo Redevelopment 2016

To help keep everyone accross the proposals for the Waterloo redevelopment as they unfold REDWatch is bringing together key documents related to the Governments Plans for the Estate.

This Question and Answer sheet was produced for the Waterloo Community Meeting on 18th February 2016 and was on the tables at the meeting. I was subsequently mailed out to tenants following the meeting.

Below is the text of the letter dated 8 March 2016 following the Renewing Waterloo Forum. It contains a breif report of the meeting (from HNSW's perspective) and some additional Questions and Answers. It was accompanied by the Q&A sheet that was on the tables at the Renewing Waterloo Forum.

Below are a series of questions from REDWatch relating to the Waterloo redevelopment announcement. As the issues raised in many cases stretch across responsibility areas for UrbanGrowth, LAHC and Housing NSW REDWatch supplied these questions to all three organisations. REDWatch has previously been actively involved in the BEP2 and Housing NSW Draft Master Plan discussions and these discussions inform the questions raised in the attached document. The document is also informed by recent REDWatch forums on the Waterloo development and questions raised with us following the announcement and the subsequent HNSW forums and discussions. As answers to questions become available we will make these available on this website.

The Winter edition of ISV looked in considerable detail at the NSW Government's Communities Plus mechanism for delivering the Government's Future Directions for Social Housing in NSW. The issue looks at the Waterloo announcement and what can be learnt from earlier public housing redevelopments. The issue also contains articles, many by experts in their field, which explore the issues that need to be considered in planning for any public housing redevelopment as currently envisaged. You can download the pdf of this issue from this link or you can visit www.innersydneyvoice.org.au/pub/category/past-editions/winter-2016/ to see the individual articles as webpages.

On 15 June 2016 City of Sydney Council held a public meeting entitled "Packed In – bad planning vs smart growth. The future of the Central to Eveleigh precinct". At the forum they launched a “Back to the drawing board” post card campaign urging its residents to send the cards or other messages to Planning Minister Robert Stokes opposing the proposals currently being prepared by UrbanGrowth Central to Eveleigh.

This is a PDF of the Back to the drawing board postcard distributed by City of Sydney at the Packed In - bad planning vs smart growth public meeting to discuss the future of the Central to Eveleigh precinct on 15 June 2016. This PDF can be downloaded and filled in and sent to the Planning Minister by being dropped in to a Council service centre of sent directly to the Planning Minister.

On 27 September 2016 Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) replied to the questions of 2 May 2016 that REDWatch asked of LAHC, FaCS Housing and UrbanGrowth Central to Eveleigh who shared various responsibilities at the time for aspects of the Waterloo public housing estate and its redevelopment. Since this time it has become apparent that LAHC are driving this process through its new Communities Plus mechanism rather than through UrbanGrowth who undertook much of the early work. The written responses are quite general responses to the issue areas raised by REDWatch rather than the detailed responses to specific questions many might like to see. These questions will form a basis for ongoing discussion between LAHC and the community during the Master Planning process.

This is a pdf copy of the Newsletter distributed to Waterloo public housing tenants on 11 November 2016. It is the first publication issued under the Communities Plus programme for redeveloping this and other housing estates. It seeks to provide some assurances for tenants that the Master Planning will take 18 months and that the Master Plan will produce a staging plan and only when that is complete will they know where on the estate building will start. The newsletter says and that the small number of tenants will need to move will be given 6 months' notice from that point that they will need to relocate for the initial construction. This changes the first relocations from the earlier announced mid-2017 to possibly the end of 2018. Master Planning will start in 2017.

With the finalisation of the "Waterloo Stakeholder and Engagement Framework" in December 2016 LAHC Communities Plus also released on 28 November 2016 agency feedback on an earlier draft. This is that document. It is important to note however that the feedback recorded relates to written feedback received by LAHC and that input made in direct meetings was not reflected in this document. The lesson - it won't necessarily be recorded if it is not in writing!

At the NCIE meeting on November 28 2016 Communities Plus released a summary of past consultations and what lessons they had identified from them - this is that document. You can find further information on the REDWatch website about the 2011-12 BEP2 and the Draft Housing NSW Master Plan consultations and community reactions to them. This document confines itself to the "engagement activities" and does not address the major community concern that the studies and documents produced as part of the earlier consultations should be released now so the community has this information as input into the current process.