Log in


Forgot your password?
 
You are here: Home / Government Sites Plans & Activities / Waterloo Public Housing & Metro Station Redevelopment / LAHC post zoning planning. / Some background for the community and the consortium on the Waterloo Redevelopment

Some background for the community and the consortium on the Waterloo Redevelopment

On 5th June 2025 REDWatch organised a meeting around the next steps in the Waterloo redevelopment. We invited the consortium to brief the community and encouraged the community to bring their questions. The material below was circulated in the REDWatch email update before the meeting to provide the local community and the Consortium with some background prior to the meeting.

This background covers the following area:

  • Questions for Homes NSW and the Consortium
  • What should planners, architects and development professionals learn from Redfern-Waterloo?
  • Where do we start the Conversation with the Consortium?
  • The approved Planning Proposal
  • Stage 1 (concept) development application
  • Application and Scoping Report for Development Application
  • Studies will include a Social Impact Assessment
  • Community lead Health Impact Assessment (HIA)
  • Healthy Higher Density Living for Families with Children

Questions for Homes NSW and the Consortium

In preparation for the meeting REDWatch has collected questions from our members, tenants and agencies that they would like answered now that the community can talk with the consortium. These questions have been supplied to Homes NSW and the Consortium and you can see the questions on the REDWatch website as Initial Questions for Homes NSW Portfolio and Consortium Partners – Waterloo South Redevelopment May 2025.

What should planners, architects and development professionals learn from Redfern-Waterloo?
In early May REDWatch spokesperson Geoff Turnbull was asked to give a 5-minute input into the Australian Architecture Conference 2025 from a Redfern-Waterloo perspective. His advice, which applies to the Consortium as they come into the area can be seen on the REDWatch website as What should planners, architects and development professionals learn from Redfern-Waterloo?

Where do we start the Conversation with the Consortium?

At the last Waterloo Redevelopment Group there was discussion about how we needed to go back and remind people where we are in the planning process given the 2.5 years gap since the planning proposal was approved. So below, in the lead up to the Consortium meeting, we thought this was a good opportunity for a bit of a Waterloo planning refresher.

The approved Planning Proposal

The starting point for the Consortium is the Approved Planning proposal which sets the Planning Controls that the Consortium need to address in its plan. You can see the outcome of that in summary form  at Waterloo South - Priority growth areas and precincts page and with more detailed requirements in the final package of the Waterloo (South) Planning Page site. The most recent documents are:

The first four of these are the most important and for non-planners start with the Final planning proposal and the Final Design Guide.

Stage 1 (concept) development application

The Planning Proposal references a Stage 1 (concept) development application as being the first Development Application (DA). That is not a DA for the first area to be developed, but rather a concept DA for the entire site. The consortium could submit a DA for the first area to be redeveloped at the same time as the Stage 1 (concept) DA.

The Design Guide sets out what the concept DA needs to cover:

4.2. Stage 1 development application

(1) A Stage 1 (concept) development application is required for land that is owned or managed by the Land and Housing Corporation within Waterloo Estate (South) as of 1 January 2021.

(2) A Stage 1 (concept) development application is to:

  (a) be informed by a detailed survey;

  (b) subdivide existing landholdings to establish:

    i. streets, through-site links and parks, in accordance with Figure 4: Land dedication and easements; and

    ii. street blocks and building lots, in accordance with Figure 3: Street blocks and building lots;

  (c) identify how the floor area is to be distributed across street blocks and building lots, including any floor space allocated for social housing, affordable housing, community facilities, childcare facilities, health care facilities and other non-residential uses. This allocation is to be generally in accordance with Table 1: Indicative floor area distribution on LAHC owned land, by street block, which provides an indicative allocation of floor space available under Sydney LEP 2012 across Waterloo Estate (South);

  (d) resolve any flooding and contamination issues on the site, identifying any necessary flood and stormwater management works and remediation works and required contamination works to ensure flood and contamination risks are appropriately managed for new development, adjacent sites within the Estate, and in adjoining localities;

  (e) provide an indicative staging plan and delivery sequence for development and the provision of public space, local infrastructure, flood and stormwater management works and remediation works;

  (f) provide an updated Design Excellence Strategy if needed, that is, if the proposed pattern of subdivision, staging or built form distribution does not follow that provided by this Design Guide;

  (g) provide a Preliminary Public Art Strategy to coordinate public art across the precinct;

  (h) include a landscape plan that:

    i. allocates the total quantum of deep soil required for each street block amongst the building lots;

    ii. identifies significant trees that are required to be conserved and those that are proposed to be removed;

  (i) address any other matters, including wind and acoustic matters, required to be resolved in a Stage 1 development application by this Design Guide, by Sydney DCP 2012 or Sydney LEP 2012.

Application and Scoping Report for Development Application

The first step to obtaining a DA is for the developer to make an application, including a scoping report, to the Department of Planning for the Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs). That application must:

  • include a simple but accurate description of the project
  • identify the relevant strategic and statutory context
  • summarise the findings of any early community engagement and describe the engagement that will be carried out during the preparation of the EIS
  • identify matters that require further assessment in the EIS and how they will be assessed

The department will publish the scoping report online and seek advice from key government agencies, including relevant councils, during the preparation of the SEARs. When issued the SEARs are also made public so people know what the developer has been asked to do.

The community normally becomes aware of the detail of the scoping report either because of early community engagement mentioned above or when the SEARs application is made public by the Department of Planning.

Studies will include a Social Impact Assessment

Due to changes in the Department of Planning study requirements, this project will require the first Social Impact Assessment to be undertaken for the Waterloo redevelopment. You can see more about Social Impact Assessments in Look before you leap: A community guide to social impact assessment by Alison Ziller PhD February 2024.

Community lead Health Impact Assessment (HIA)

Preparations are underway for a community lead Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in Waterloo. Part of the HIA will involve tenants being trained in doing a health impact assessment by people from the University of NSW, and supported in working on collecting information from the community. The model is like the Peer Navigators who have been active in Waterloo talking to people about health issues. If any tenant is interested in being involved, please contact Elle at Counterpoint’s Factory ASAP or email her on info@counterpointcs.org.au to discuss the possibility. This project involves Counterpoint Community Services, Groundswell NGOs, the Waterloo Redevelopment Group and the UNSW Health Equity Research and Development Unit (HERDU). REDWatch is a member of Groundswell and attends Waterloo Redevelopment Group meetings.

REDWatch has also been involved in getting the 2019 HIA, Healthy Waterloo, in the public domain. Following feedback from Homes NSW and discussions with Sydney Local Health District and HERDU, the 2019 study will be made public by HERDU soon. The dated recommendations that were negotiated back in 2019 have been deleted, but the rest of the document and its literature review and data will now be in the public domain.

Healthy Higher Density Living for Families with Children

There have been several studies recently that highlight the problems families with children have in finding suitable family unit accommodation. Part of this is about there not being enough three-bedroom apartments, but it is also about the non-bedroom apartment size, amenities provided by developments and how they fit into the surrounding community.

In partnership with City of Parramatta, the Centre for Population Health’s Health Promotion Team in Western Sydney Local Health District has been exploring the health impacts of living in high density housing, with a focus on families with young children. Their research has lead to the production of a Healthy Higher Density Living for Families with Children: An Advocacy, Planning and Design Guide. This guide is being picked up by councils and it would be good to explore how the guide might also be applied to Waterloo to deliver more family friendly homes into the mix.

One drawback for the Waterloo redevelopment might be that the guide suggests the need for more larger units. This might create a problem for Homes NSW and Stockland who will have calculated the number of units they can deliver based on the Planning Proposal which may not have factored in as many three-bedroom units and larger family units as proposed in the guide.

Even so, if the redevelopment is to deliver a successful high-density precinct, then there needs to be a mix of people and units including housing that works for families with children.

Source: REDWatch Email Update 27 May 2025