You can find the documents from
the announcement from the page Central to Eveleigh on the UrganGrowth NSW website.
Some media reports and other information can be found on the REDWatch website
under the Central to Eveleigh
tab. Below we have tried to unpack the announcement and set it in the context
of the controls and decisions of the RWA.
The corridor covered by the
announcement extends for approximately three kilometres from the Goulburn
Street car park in the Sydney CBD to Macdonaldtown station. It includes Central
and Redfern stations, Australian Technology Park (ATP), Railcorp’s
Air-conditioned Depot Carriage Sheds (ACDEP) and Macdonaldtown Stabling Yards,
North Eveleigh and airspace above railway lines in proximity to Central and
Redfern Stations and maybe Macdonaldtown.
The Central to Eveleigh Corridor
is one of the elements in the Global Sydney City Shapers of the Draft
Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031 which set a priority to “investigate
the regeneration potential of areas such as Town Hall, Central to City
Road and Central to Eveleigh”. The Metro Strategy has just gone off
exhibition and the Planning Department’s last community information session on
the Strategy was held the day after the announcement.
REDWatch argued in the REDWatch
Submission on Draft Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031 that the
exhibition should not be rushed through and should be re-exhibited under the
improved community participation promised in the New Planning System for such a
plan. Seven hundred people supported REDWatch’s online petition to this effect.
Never the less the Minister continued with the exhibition and has now used the
Metro Strategy as the basis for this announcement before submissions have been
considered.
The City of Sydney in its
Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision said “Central Station will be re-cast as an
important southern arrival gateway to the City and a place for significant
redevelopment over the rail lines and around a series of redesigned public
squares.” Much of the Minister’s announcement seems to refer primarily to the
large scale development that will be necessary to justify the cost of building
over the area between Cleveland Street and Central.
Central End of Proposed Central to
Eveleigh Strategy
The SMH property editor has
suggested towers of 50 storeys just to make it viable so you can see why the
Urban Taskforce is concerned that “local action groups will almost certainly
want to reduce the impact”. Chippendale residents in the mixed use area between
Abercrombie and Regent Streets will feel especially venerable with the Frazer’s
site to the North, a growing bar district and now very high rise proposed to
their east. The proposal increases the likelihood of a push to also allow high
density in adjoining Chippendale which will be harder to resist with the
changes proposed in the New Planning System and with the powers of UrbanGrowth
to compulsorily acquire properties to facilitate block consolidation for
development if the area is target by the government.
Eveleigh End of Proposed Central to
Eveleigh Strategy
Thrown in with the Central
development is the option of building over Redfern Station and a “Development
Opportunity over Rail” to the south connecting to the station that could also
provide a pedestrian and bicycle link from ATP to North Eveleigh. The argument
is that “High density development above and adjacent to the rail corridor will
provide for the conservation and renewal of Central and Redfern railway
stations as world class facilities”.
The option of building over
Redfern Station option was rejected several years ago because it was not
believed to be financially viable at that time. Instead the Redfern Waterloo
Authority (RWA)’s Built Environment Plan (BEP1) proposed buildings up to 14
storeys opposite the newly completed 18 storey DeiCota Tower. An over station
development is more likely to deliver a station accessible from many directions
where the low rise options discussed to date cut off access from some
directions.
There is no guarantee in the
proposal about a new Redfern Station. The proposal uses wording like “it could
also lead to the upgrade of Central and Redfern stations into world class
transport facilities” and “there will … be opportunities to upgrade … Redfern
station”. We might have a long wait still before we see an accessible station
as building over railway lines is a very expensive business and needs tall
buildings to pay for it. Redfern property prices may need to go up much further
before it becomes financially viable without a significant government
contribution. In the meantime Redfern Station languishes without lifts.
The former Eveleigh Railyards
that have been the subject of community consultation for planning controls,
Master plans and Concept plans over the last 7 years are also covered by the
announcement. “The future of the existing North Eveleigh Concept Plan and
Redfern Waterloo Master plan (sic) will also be determined as part of this
process” says the announcement. That’s a nice way of saying that if someone
makes an offer but wants to put up bigger buildings they will consider it and
no longer be bound by what has been earlier been negotiated with the community
and already been put into planning law.
The planning controls for some
of the sites in the Redfern – Eveleigh sites can be found in the State
Environmental Planning Policy (Major Development) Redfern–Waterloo
Authority Sites. The links to the key maps are:
- Land
Use Zoning Map (344 kB) - Heritage
Map (338 kB) - Height
of Buildings Map (346 kB) - Floor
Space Ratio Map (348 kB) (excludes ATP see below) - ATP
Gross Floor Area Map (158 kB) (FSR not on RWA FSR map above
UrbanGrowth NSW who is handling
the process for the NSW Government “will look at all feasible development
delivery options for bringing land packages or sub precincts to market.”
Encouragingly the announcement text sees “medium density mixed use and
residential development within the Eveleigh precinct” even though the diagrams
show the Eveleigh developments as high density neighbourhoods – so who knows
what to expect!
One such high density
neighbourhood is shown for the areas zoned for development at the ATP that is
currently zoned as a Business Park. It is not clear if the intention is to now
include residential as is inferred within the term neighbourhood or if the
Government thinks it can get offers for high density commercial. Frasers on the
CUB site recently scrapped one of their commercial buildings and are trying to
turn it into student accommodation as there was not sufficient market demand.
It is certain that Alexandria residents, still smarting from the Channel 7
building, will not be happy about the Minister’s announcement.
Key Eveleigh heritage buildings
like Carriageworks, ATP’s Locomotive buildings and the large Erecting Shop are
untouched by the proposed redevelopment areas although the area occupied by the
Paint Shop is shown as high density. The Frequently Asked Questions sheet
released with the announcement provides some assurance on Heritage. It states:
“The corridor vision recognises the heritage significance of the precinct which
is included in both State and City of Sydney Heritage registers. Any future
development will need to demonstrate how existing heritage is to be retained”.
Elsewhere the proposal states “Heritage assets within the precinct will be
conserved, with adaptive re-use which preserves heritage values into the 21st
Century.” Maybe there will now just be a much taller building up through the
Paint Shop!
In contrast to Frank Sartor’s
assertion that the RWA Act needed to be able to over-ride the Heritage Act
because the state’s oldest public toilet was standing in the way of
redeveloping Redfern Station the announcement recognises the need for the
“Preservation and renewal of prized heritage assets, including Central and
Redfern stations”.
The proposal shows North
Eveleigh with high density neighbourhoods to the east and west of Carriageworks
but we have to wait for the developer interest and negotiations to see how that
might eventuate and compare with the approved concept plan and existing
controls. Worryingly only the new City West Affordable housing development and
the access road on the Newtown end of North Eveleigh are locked in. The two
sites along Wilson Street, the Clothing Store and the proposed new park at the
Western end of North Eveleigh are likely to be early tests of what might change
under the new approach. There are a number of challenging traffic issues that
will also need to tackled in any density increase on the site.
BEP1 also included a long term
provision for redevelopment on the non-ATP part of South Eveleigh however
controls were not put into the SEPP over the ACDEP Carriage Sheds. Most of the
initial focus here was on the campaign to save the Large Erecting Shop which
was successfully removed from the re-development controls last year. The
Minister’s announcement also includes a high density neighbourhood over the
RailCorp operating sites of the ACDEP Carriage Sheds as well as the low density
portion of the Eveleigh public housing estate. The redevelopment of the public
housing was also flagged RWA’s BEP2 which covered the redevelopment of the
area’s public housing.
One area not covered by BEP1 and
down for another high density neighbourhood is the recently completed
Macdonaldtown stabling yards. From the diagram this development looks like it
potentially includes Macdonaldtown station but this is not mentioned in the
text and the colour code does not have it as an “Over Rail” development. The
residents of Leamington Avenue having fought RailCorp over the uncertainty and
possible resumption of their homes a couple of years ago now face a similar
battle with this unexpected new high density proposal impacting on their homes.
By putting Central to
Macdonaldtown developments in one internationally promoted expression of
interest the Government hopes it will also get interest in the Redfern and
Eveleigh sites as well as the more attractive sites around Central. The
proposal says “The precinct is most likely too large to be delivered by a
single development. The … strategy will look at all feasible development
delivery options for bringing land packages or sub precincts to market”.
Interestingly only a couple of
weeks ago news broke of a failed bid for a much larger unsolicited proposal to
the NSW Government from Chinese contractors who offered to underground the rail
corridor and the M4 East in exchange for being able to build 150 pre-fabricated
skyscrapers from Central Station to Strathfield. You can see the details under A Corridor
Re-Development Offer: Swap you: Chinese skyscrapers for a motorway. This prompts the question: What other
interesting offers will come from the expressions of interest process.
One of the areas that is
welcomed in the proposal is the stated desire to use the redevelopments to
provide greater permeability across the railway line. Near Central the whole
area gets built over where three crossings are proposed across the railway
lines from North Eveleigh. No mention is made of the area’s other great
barriers like the Regent Street / Gibbons Street twin pair and how this impacts
on rail bus interchanges or Cleveland Street. Work by the Redfern Waterloo
Partnership Project explored a number of tunnel options back in 2004. The new
proposal does include a green link between Redfern and Central using Railway
land between Cleveland and Lawson Street bridges to link the two ends of the
proposal. Unless someone offers to build over this part of the corridor
covering it for a long park would be too expensive so the illustration shows
this as a path alongside the railway line.
It is very disappointing that
after all these years of community engagement with the RWA about the future of
these sites and their planning controls that the Government has now decided to
disregard that outcome. This is from a Government that came to power promising
to return planning power back to the community and in the New Planning
System for NSW promising ground breaking community participation in making
strategic plans!
With the winding up of the RWA
and SMDA and the move to UrbanGrowth NSW, Redfern Waterloo has lost any ongoing
community participation mechanisms in these decisions. There is no longer a
local government authority, no update emails, letterboxed updates, no CEO to
ring up and discuss your concerns and no Ministerial Advisory Committees
ensuring at least a quarterly update on some of what was happening.
The Minister has said in his announcement
that they “will be working with the City of Sydney and all local residents in
developing the plans for the corridor.” More likely is the statement on the
UrbanGrowth Statement which says “UrbanGrowth NSW will be reporting regularly
to Government, and any updates will be available on the website www.urbangrowthnsw.com.au. Any
formal community engagement will be subject to future announcements.”
The new Central to Eveleigh
Corridor information also sits on the Planning Department’s website under
strategic planning. It is the first strategic planning announcement after the
White Paper and Metro Strategy exhibitions. The New Planning System talks about
the need for early community involvement in strategic planning and the Minister
needs to start the new process with the communities around this announcement.
The introduction to the
Community Participation section of the White Paper (p44) says: Community
participation in the preparation of plans and a vision for their local areas
represents a key change in the new planning system. This means that the
opportunity for the community to participate at the start of the planning
process and on an ongoing basis will be prioritised and integral to setting the
vision and ground rules for local areas.
If the community is to have
faith in the promised new ground breaking community participation in making
strategic plans then it needs to started here and it needs to start now!
REDWatch is looking to organise
a public meeting in the near future where Government Representatives can
explain the proposal in more details and deal with questions from the
community. Keep an eye on www.redwatch.org.au
for details.
In
July 2013 REDWatch held a roundtable on NIMBYs. A proposal like the Central to
Eveleigh Global Precinct Opportunity will bring out reactions that might be
considered NIMBY so have a look at REDWatch’s NIMBY
Discussion Points! At our next meeting on August 1st
REDWatch will be looking at another topical issue related to this announcement
: Density – Must it be
high-rise?
For more information contact:
Geoffrey Turnbull
Spokesperson
REDWatch
Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490 Mob:
0418 457 392
email: mail@redwatch.org.au