Sartor outlines final Redfern plan

KEY POINTS

• The plan includes 440,000 square metres of employment space.
• There is room for 2000 new homes.
• But the Aboriginal Housing Company says the floor-space ratio of housing on the Block is discriminatory.

Not to mention housing on the most contentious of the sites known as the Block for at least 60 of the area’s 2000 Aboriginal inhabitants — an issue that may still trip the government up and land it in court, according to local Aboriginal groups.

If the plans succeed, though, and the evidence is already pointing that way, it will be a stunning victory for Planning Minister Frank Sailor, a former lord mayor of Sydney as well as minister for the Redfern-Waterloo Authority, which has been handed the task of pushing through the transformation.

In delivering the final built environment plan for the area, Mr Sartor yesterday outlined 440,000 square metres of employment space and 2000 homes across eight strategic sites that are currently state-government owned, a new town centre and an upgraded railway station, adaptive reuse of heritage buildings including a $10 million community health centre, and a $6 million pedestrian bridge across the railway line, linking the North Eveleigh area with the Australian Technology Park

All up the RWA has already stimulated more than $300 million in new investments, $76 million directly from the coffers of the RWA and 18,000 jobs overall.

Mr Sartor said he had made key concessions on the draft plan, after fielding public submissions including relaxing the floor-space ratio from 0.5:1 proposed for the Block in the draft plan to a final 0.75:1 ratio.

Other concessions are protecting the Marian Street Park and a list of heritage buildings. Already committed to the area is Seven Network and its associated Pacific Publications, which will shift to a new development at the Australian Technology Park.

Babcock & Brown has a leading stake in the former TNT towers that will form the new town centre or "economic hub" of Redfern.

For the rest of the property development industry, the key interest will be on the eight state-government owned sites that will progressively come to the market with various potential.

These are: The Australian Technology Park; North Eveleigh; South Eveleigh Railyards ; Eveleigh Street Precinct (including The Block); Redfern Railway Station and the Gib

bons Street/Regent Street precinct; the former Rachel Forster Hospital; the former local court house and Redfern police station; and the former Redfern public school.

Welcoming the plan was The Property Council of Australia, which said it focused on creating much needed employment and would certainly attract investor interest in Redfern.

"This is unashamedly a jobs-first plan and we support this approach," NSW executive director Ken Morrison said.

Especially welcome was the provision of local infrastructure "to act as a catalyst for investment", Mr Morrison said.

But it won't be quite so easy. Aboriginal Housing Company chief executive Mick Mundine said his group would not be able to get the 60 or 62 dwellings promised by Mr Sartor onto the 8000 sq m site at the Block because of the floor-space ratio.

Mr Mundine said that was discriminatory.

Surrounding residential areas had been designated a 1:1 FSR, (instead of the 0.75:1 for the Block).

"I really feel he is discriminating about who owns the land and who's going to live here," Mr Mundine said. "We are being treated as second-class citizens.

"We want to see Redfern beautified and we all want to see all this happen but why can't we be part of the vision like everyone else is?

"I'm very disappointed."

The AHC might decide to challenge the government on discrimination grounds as well as in the Land and Environment Court," Mr Mundine said.

Illustration: Fresh look ... An artist's impression of a pedestrian bridge to be built between North Eveleigh and the Australian Technology Park.