Waterloo State Significant Precinct (SSP) Studies and Consultants

Waterloo State Significant Precinct (SSP) Studies

NSW Planning and Environment posted details of the studies required for the Waterloo State Significant Precinct on Friday 26 May 2017.

It is important to note that while the document posted is titled ‘Study Requirements’, there are two different sets of studies in the document and they are not identical - one set covers the Waterloo Estate (pages 8-32) and the set other covers the Metro quarter (pages 35-55).

An additional Social Sustainability Assessment is required for the Estate but not for the Metro Quarter. While the rest of the studies have the same name there are requirements added or removed from each study. For example, identifying the infrastructure needs for health facilities and primary health care services is a part of the study requirements for the Metro Quarter, but not in the Waterloo Estate requirements.

The Applicants for the Waterloo Estate are NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) and UrbanGrowth NSW (UG). The Applicant for the Waterloo Metro Quarter is UrbanGrowth NSW. This is the link to download the official Study Requirements Nominated State Significant Precinct – Waterloo May 2017.

Land and Housing Corporation information on consultants and their studies

On 29 May 2017 LAHC posted summaries of the SSP study requirements as well as details of which consultants would undertake studies to meet the SSP study requirements – a list showing the consultant studies and how they relate to the SSP study requirements are also provided. Below we have provided direct links to the documents, which you can find at the foot of the page at www.communitiesplus.com.au/major-sites/waterloo.

• Waterloo Requirements Table - This table provides a list of the Study Requirements and the studies that will be undertaken for the Waterloo precinct

• Waterloo Summary of Studies - This document provides a summary of each of the studies  that will be undertaken to meet the Study set by the Minister for Planning
• Waterloo Study Requirements Summary – This is a summary of the Study Requirements.
• Waterloo Consultants Table – This table provides a list of the studies that will be under taken to meet the Requirements and the technical consultants that will carry out the studies according to the Study Requirements.
• Feedback Form - FACS is asking for feedback on the summary of studies. If you think there is something missing this is your opportunity to say so.

Land and Housing Corporation's (LAHC) Communities Plus also issued a newsletter on 26 May 2017 advising the community of the announcement and the proposed consultation – you can download it from Community Plus Waterloo Newsletter May 2017.

Combined SSP study requirements

At a meeting of organisations with UrbanGrowth and LAHC on Friday 2 June 2017, we were advised that the consultant studies and the LAHC summaries are based on the combined requirements and not just those for the Waterloo Estate. The final report on the SSP will have a table that shows how the SSP requirements for both Waterloo Estate and Waterloo Metro Quarter have been met by the broader consultant’s studies.

Given the differences between the SSP study requirements, REDWatch initially highlighted a copy of the original study requirements so people can see the key differences. You can download this from the REDWatch website at Study Requirements Nominated State Significant Precinct – Waterloo May 2017 - Differences highlighted.

REDWatch has now produced a combined version of the SSP precinct requirements - REDWatch's Combined Waterloo SSP Study Requirements. This document shows common text in black, Waterloo Estate specific text in green and Waterloo Metro Quarter text in red. As time permits, we will also add links to documents mentioned in the SSP requirements.

Please note that REDWatch has produced these documents to assist readers identify the differences between the two sets of requirements and to have a combined document. These should be taken as a guide only. While we have taken care in this comparison, we cannot guarantee that all differences have been identified or that there have not been errors in the manual part of the preparation. Readers should rely on their own comparisons. If you identify any errors, please email details to mail@redwatch.org.au.

Information about Consultants coming onto Waterloo Estate

LAHC have been advising  Waterloo Redevelopment Group members (agencies, NAB reps and interested others) about consultants coming on to the estate. In future, they will issue an email on Friday with the coming week’s consultant activity on the estate. Community groups have raised concerns that the summary information on consultant studies do not contain sufficient information for the community to understand how this consultant activity relates to the process that is being used by the consultants. For example a 24 hour traffic study raised questions about how this fitted in to a robust traffic study and similar concerns were raised about public space use only being assessed between 9am and 5pm. LAHC and UG have undertaken to provide more detail on the study scopes but this may take a while.

City of Sydney Involvement in SSP

On 1 June City of Sydney Council made a Presentation on Waterloo Study Requirements to REDWatch The presentation dealt with the requested topic of density well done by saying that Council's requirements, including a set of principles from the Lord Mayor, were included in the study requirements and that Council would have an active role in monitoring the process. You can see some more information on REDWatch website on Council's Role in the Waterloo SSP and the Project Review Panel.

Non - SSP Studies

All of the above flows from the official planning requirements for rezoning Waterloo Estate and Waterloo Metro Quarter. It does not cover the non-built environment aspects of particular concern to REDWatch. The LAHC summaries refer to an additional study outside the requirements on Place Making which they refer to as Study 28. In the meeting with LAHC and UG LAHC also referred to a process to put together a Human Services Plan. LAHC also said that at the broader Communities Plus level they are putting together a study on Social Mix. We have asked for further information on these studies and for the opportunity to make input on them.

Feedback requested on Studies

With the release of the study requirements LAHC and UG are seeking community feedback about the study requirements – a Feedback Form has been provided on the Communities Plus website. REDWatch encourages community members and those with expertise in any of the study areas to look at the requirements and to raise any issues that should be added to ensure that all aspects of concern are covered in the studies. Feedback on studies should include suggestions for issues which need to be looked at by LAHC in addition to the built environment studies.

Prepared by REDWatch 4 June 2017