LIft Redfern Petition - Landscape
Forgot your password?
Plan to demolish Redfern towers
Matavi and Turanga, Waterloo's twin 29-storey towers, still have 30 years of life left in them.
But the council's Waterloo and Redfern Urban Design Report says "perimeter development is preferred to both the clusters of walk-ups and … isolated towers".
George Street, which was bisected by a lawn between the towers, should be reinstated, the study says.
A Department of Housing spokesman said there were no immediate plans to knock the towers down. But the Redfern Waterloo Authority, charged with redeveloping the two suburbs, is considering how to bring more private housing into the area.
Yesterday the Minister for Housing, Matt Brown, announced that one public housing block of 106 units would be redeveloped into 264 apartments and houses with 158 sold to private owners.
But the authority's chief executive, Robert Domm, said the council's recommendations for the towers were premature.
Kate Cavanagh, the director of services for Mercy Arms Community Care, disagreed with replacing the towers just because of their height, saying her clients felt a sense of community there.
Tony Vinson, the emeritus professor of social work at the University of NSW, said the plans to bring in a higher socioeconomic group to Redfern-Waterloo were positive because they are a "more demanding clientele" for government services.
However, there was no evidence that it led to more social cohesion, he said.
See also Statement at NSW GOVERNMENT GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR REDFERN REDEVELOPMENT
[REDWatch note: The Sydney Morning Herald article makes reference to the City of Sydney’s “Waterloo and Redfern Urban Design Study Report” which can be found on the City of Sydney’s website. The Study is broken up into a number of large PDF files and for convenience we have provided links below to the relevant sections on the City of Sydney website:
The Urban Design recommendations that cover the area of the announced Elizabeth Street DoH redevelopment is covered in section 3.2.6 Kettle Street (3. Neighbourhood Strategies - C | PDF 4.5Mb). The Urban Design recommendations that cover the Waterloo DoH area that encompasses Matavi and Turanga is 3.2.12 George Street (3. Neighbourhood Strategies - G | PDF 5.5Mb). This area was also the subject of a significant site study on which the SMH article has drawn (6. Significant Sites | PDF 4.9Mb). Appendix E ( PDF 114Kb) of the Urban design study shows all public housing in the Waterloo Redfern area. The Urban Design Study 5. LEP Recommendations ( PDF 4.9Mb) detail the new heights that the City of Sydney are proposing for all areas in Waterloo and Redfern including for the recently announced Elizabeth Street DoH redevelopment.]
