Clover Moores comments on the RWA Built Environment Plan

FINAL RWA BUILT ENVIRONMENT PLAN RELEASED

The Redfern-Waterloo Authority's Built Environment Plan makes concessions to community concerns while retaining the overall thrust of the draft publicly exhibited earlier this year. Released by the Minister for Redfern and Waterloo on 30 August, the Plan establishes the development framework for the eight "state significant" sites under the Redfern Waterloo Authority's control.

The community campaign to save open space at Marian Street Park from development as an 18 storey tower has been successful, with the revised Plan reallocating the site from business/commercial to public recreation.

The maximum height of buildings north of the Watertower apartments has also been decreased from 18 storeys to 14 storeys, reducing overshadowing. Lower (five storey) setbacks on future towers along Gibbons Street may also help reduce wind tunnel effects, but the maximum heights proposed in the draft remain. Towers up to 18 storeys will be possible in the area bounded by Lawson Square and Margaret, Gibbons and Regent Streets.

The future of the Aboriginal Housing Company's Pemulwuy Project remains at risk and it is unlikely that the Aboriginal Housing Company (AHC) will be able to build its planned 62 residences for Aboriginal people.

The draft Plan proposed a floor space ratio (FSR) of 0.5:1 for the area largely owned by the AHC. The revised Plan marginally increases this to 0.75:1, which is lower than the adjacent area's FSR of 1:1.  The maximum FSR including commercial development remains at 1.5:1.

Height limits along the rail corridor have also been increased to five storeys, with a maximum FSR of 2:1. The open space shown in the draft plan (known as Pemulwuy Park) has been rezoned, with an extension of the five storey controls all the way between Lawson Street and Cleveland Street. 

Redfern Courthouse and Police Station will become a community health centre under the Plan, preserving the heritage Courthouse for community benefit.

A $6 million pedestrian and cycle bridge is proposed to link the Australian Technology Park and North Eveleigh. This promises improved access and safety, providing an alternative to the existing crossings at Lawson Street and Macdonaldtown Railway Station.

While the Government has contracted a consultant to develop a Concept Plan for redevelopment of Redfern Railway Station, there is no timeframe for this project or the associated "Civic Centre" that the Built Environment Plan lists as the centrepiece of the proposed Redfern Town Centre.

The concessions in the revised plan are welcome, but don't provide solutions for the lack of green open space, and significant traffic and transport issues. These important issues are put to the future in the promised public domain, cultural and cycling strategies. There are no concrete plans for affordable housing or the area's extensive Department of Housing properties.

The intensification of land use will increase the working and residential population, and it appears that the Government will repeat the past patterns of urban consolidation without prior infrastructure investments to support it.

Information

• Built Environment Plan: www.redfernwaterloo.nsw.gov.au/publications/reports.htm#bep
• Community comment on the Plan is available at www.redwatch.org.au/update/update060904

REDFERN HEALTH WIN

The Government decision to redevelop the Redfern Courthouse and Police Station sites as a community health centre is a double win, given previous plans to sell these sites.

The Redfern community has been campaigning for improved health services and the preservation of heritage since Rachel Forster Hospital was closed. Unfortunately, the Authority will sell off the former Rachel Forster site to help pay for the new facility.

Under the Redfern-Waterloo Authority Built Environment Plan, the former Courthouse and Police Station sites will be rezoned, the Courthouse listed as a heritage item, and a $10 million health facility up to six storeys high built on the former police station site in Turner Street.

The new facility will provide health assessments and education, early childhood and family support, counselling and referral, drug and mental health services, rehabilitation programs, HIV/AIDS and sexual health services.

The new health centre will provide more comprehensive services than previously proposed for a site in Lawson Street. The Government has also now announced that it will not proceed with that development, which had created significant concern about local amenity impacts.

This new Community Health Centre will not be up and running until the end of 2008, still two years away. Former Premier Bob Carr promised a new $1.5 million facility in October 2004.