North Eveleigh / CarriageWorks Development Site Flyer May 2012

North Eveleigh Solar Study for the Concept Plan 2009 – view from Wilson Street – after this they increased heights at the western end of the site to 12 stories and 16 stories to the eastern end.

You can access the current proposal on www.smda.nsw.gov.au 

Dear Neighbours,

NORTH EVELEIGH/CARRIAGEWORKS DEVELOPMENT SITE

The Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority (SMDA) the successor of the RWA have notified this community of their intention to implement road works allied to the provision of Affordable Housing on the western end of the site in accord with the adopted ‘North Eveleigh Concept Plan’.

You may recollect that about two years ago the RWA went through a token consultation process on the Concept Plan before it was rubber stamped under the now abolished notorious 3A provision with an in-house and closed process setting aside the bulk of the community submissions opposed to the proposed overdevelopment depicted in the image above. As detailed plans had not been developed, it was not possible to evaluate the internal amenity of the proposed housing or the external amenity of the spaces between, some of which was purported to be open space.

However, the provision of open space, as measured, was far below the standards applied to recent central development sites such as Pyrmont/Ultimo, Green Square and Victoria Park, in one of the most deficient areas in the inner city in terms of parks. We have the lovely Hollis Park nearby, but this is hardly adequate for the existing population, let alone the likely 1500 projected new population at this end of the site. Twelve storey apartments are proposed to the eastern side of this pocket park.  

It is proposed to retain the existing access point off Wilson Street plus a new Railcorp access road that wraps around Iverys Lane to the back of the site. This will create an island of open space with no frontage to Wilson Street or connection to the community.  

The construction of affordable housing is a pretext to proceed with the mega development of this site.  The affordable housing is 12% of the whole, but it seems the whole of the Federal Housing grant of $ 12.5m will be spent on these roadworks which benefit the Carriageworks complex and the private housing. That is about $ 120 000 for each of the proposed affordable houses Is this not yet another rort of a well-intended program? The proposed affordable housing is aligned with Wilson Street, two stories below and two above the level of the street. It will be benign and reasonable compared to the twelve storey monsters behind. Federal funding of this housing is being mis-used on what is essentially a private real estate marketing exercise!

Many objected at the time with the use of the existing access point to serve both the Carriageworks complex and the new housing to the western end. It hugely compromises the park and wastes a lot of land to boot. In response to the “Concept Plan”, we had traffic engineers evaluate this issue. They supported an access point at Golden Grove, which was also supported by the City Council engineers.

The current access has the following problems:

1.    Being at the western extremity it increases the trips through residential streets. It would be far better located further east to efficiently access the arterial system – hence Golden Grove.

2.    It is poorly sited for the required functions.  It should separate traffic into the Carriageworks and residential and therefore be located between the two functions. It should also most efficiently access the southern side to provide access to the rail line, as required by RailCorp, as well as to the back of house services at the Carriageworks.

3.    There is a lack of control and no proposal for traffic signals on an intersection which will experience a massive anticipated growth in traffic.

4.    There is no control of access to minimize conflict with pedestrians and cyclists. The area has very high levels of both. Wilson Street is the best used cycle route serving the inner west. The potential for accidents is horrendous. Even though the current traffic into the site is low there was a recent potentially very serious accident by a vehicle exiting the site.

5.    And, as mentioned, it chops up the new park into little bits, and will make it hell getting to it. There is the potential for a park of similar size and quality to Hollis Park, without comprising what they seek to do.

SOLUTION - a road extension to Golden Grove past the Clothing Store to the railway line would most efficiently serve this purpose, reduce the amount of roadway, and save the whole of the western end for the park. This was committed by Carmel Tebbutt, at the site meeting with Frank Sartor when he was Minister for Planning in 2009.

The Save Leamington Avenue Group did a champion job at tackling the juggernaut of Rail Corp by hitting the politicians. This needs a similar effort.

We are Bruce and Sarah Lay who live at 210 Wilson Street corner of Queen Street (for 35 years) Bruce is an architect and planner, with a heritage bent. Get in touch lay.heritage@gmail.com