- Home
- Hansard & Papers
- Legislative Assembly
- 2 March 2006
Inner Sydney Open Space
Printing Tips |
Print selected text
| Full Day Hansard Transcript
« Prior Item |
Item 42 of 43
| Next Item »
Page: 21018
Ms CLOVER MOORE (Bligh) [5.50 p.m.]: Tonight I congratulate Woollahra Municipal Council and the Paddington community on progress towards protecting open space and public access to the White City site at Paddington. There is community support for council's draft development control plan, which should ensure the former competition tennis site is not destroyed, as was foreshadowed when I last spoke on White City in September 2002. At that time I asked the Government to meet its urban consolidation policy responsibilities by preserving open space from unacceptable overdevelopment that destroys parkland and local amenity. The Government failed to provide that protection, and the community has had to fight hard to retain the open space and protect local amenity. Residents, under the banner of Action for Community Environment [ACE], which I have been proud to support, have fought a sustained 10-year community campaign against overdevelopment, and credit is due to those residents who have saved the site.
In 1996 Woollahra council resolved to prepare a development control plan for White City that would "protect the open space zonings of the site, the historic nature of the space, the view corridors of Paddington and indicate the nature of development, if any, allowable on the site." Woollahra council endorsed development principles to protect the residential environment and character of surrounding areas, to protect view corridors from Paddington and from Edgecliff-Darling Point, to contribute to the open space character and importance of the site, to include dedicated and accessible public open space, to retain and not detrimentally impact on the significance of heritage items on the site and to provide alternative vehicle access to the site and include all parking on site.
Yet major community campaigns were required to demonstrate community opposition and halt the 2000 and 2001 rezoning proposals that would have undermined those principles. The subsequent 2003 Walsh inquiry found no case for rezoning for development. Resident action and involvement in the 2004 local government elections resulted in new councillors who support open space, public access and residential amenity, leading the new council to determine not to rezone White City. While that draft development control plan has not yet resolved the serious traffic and parking constraints on the site, it should achieve the principles set out 10 years ago.
The inner city cannot afford to lose open space, having borne the brunt of high-density redevelopment in recent decades and being the focus of the recently released Metropolitan Strategy for urban development. Former government, church and commercial sites are being converted to multi-unit residential development with little or no open space. Existing housing is already medium to high density, and the majority of residents do not have backyards. Recent massive redevelopments include the sites of the St Margaret's Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Women, along with six major Kings Cross hotels. There is vast urban renewal planned for Green Square, which will house an additional 20,000 to 30,000 people. The Redfern-Waterloo Authority also proposes massive development in the Redfern precinct.
Meanwhile, more than two hectares of Moore Park were given to the Eastern Distributor tollway and 24 hectares of the former showground was leased for commercial use. The Redfern-Waterloo Authority plans to sell or redevelop the former Redfern Public School, which has valuable public open space, the police station, and the former Rachel Forster Hospital. Open space will be lost, with nothing but promises of future public domain or open-space improvements. In 2000 I called on the Minister for Planning to undertake a regional open space audit as a prerequisite for any White City rezoning. The Government's Metropolitan Open Space Team was to assess demand and supply, and to identify and target shortfalls. Despite past promises, the Government still has no clear guide to open space needs. That is the area in which it will focus its urban development for the Metropolitan Strategy.
Instead, precious open space remains vulnerable to overdevelopment and destruction. Woollahra council's local audit identified an urgent need to supplement existing low levels of open space, supporting the protection of White City. The Council of the City of Sydney is carrying out an open space and recreation audit to provide local benchmarks and guide future action to increase open space. However, there are few opportunities for increased open space in densely developed inner Sydney, where land that is developed will never be available again and, as we all know, is so expensive. The New South Wales Government should be providing leadership, setting goals, dedicating public land or protecting existing public land to meet future open space needs. I call on the Government to carry out an open space audit that will identify gaps, set goals and guide decisions to provide a vital legacy of increased public open space in densely populated inner Sydney. It is called planning and providing for the future benefit of citizens.
Last modified 05/12/2007 16:42:37 : Update this page