Green Loop sets high standard

All this makes it a prime candidate for large-scale urban renewal. Certainly, plans for the area have cooled down in light of the global economic crisis. Despite this, Landcom, which has responsibility for the project on behalf of the State Government and City Council, has received commercial offers to partner with it to develop the first phase of over 200,000m² gross floor area of new construction with an end value of over $1 billion. The local environment plan for the Town Centre envisages buildings up to 20 storeys over the railway station, and the rest of the urban form basically stepping down from this pinnacle to meet the existing residential fabric. In realising all this, $3.2 billion will be generated for the State economy and 4,000 jobs created in building flats for some 19,000 new residents over the broader area.

NSW Ministry of Transport, City of Sydney and Landcom's recent Transport Management and Accessibility Plan (TMAP) warns that this development will see at least 4,000 new car trips in the am peak subsequently added in the area over a 25-year timeframe with a “business as usual” approach to the expected population growth.

Luckily, there has been a constructive tension between the top-down approach of the State government and the bottom-up approach of City of Sydney with Clover Moore as the figurehead. The site is earmarked as an exemplar for the Sustainable Sydney 2030 vision. This vision outlines a series of best-practice, and better-than-best-practice initiatives to not only accommodate the growth of the city over the next 20 years, but to start the ball rolling on setting a very high standard for large-scale sustainable development. Ambitious, yet feasible targets, to reduce vehicle traffic and implement alternative travel modes are imperative to the sustainability of the work, such as TMAP’s proposed transit Green Loop connecting Green Square to Central, Redfern and Surry Hills.

Although the pragmatic controls are all in place, the success or failure of the precinct will depend on ongoing policy development and implementation across all levels of government.

Infrastructure strategies and transport solutions need to be planned and implemented fast, so that when the people move into the new developments, everything is already set up. The Green Square line was developed as one of the State’s public-private partnerships. Consequently, travellers pay through the nose for it (a return ticket to Central Station costs $10.20). This has been identified by City of Sydney as a barrier to the new Green Square residents using the centrally located train station for a daily commute to the city.

This is where the whip needs to be cracked, because the track record of NSW’s transport infrastructure management is underwhelming, as evidenced, amongst other things, by the recent snub from Infrastructure Australia not recognising any major Sydney transport project as being adequate to justify Federal funding. Reasons include multiple bureaucracies, insufficient coordination and undercooked proposals.

Transport cannot be looked at in isolation and for such expensive, long-term projects that affect so many. Now is a critical time to create well-placed, affordable and accessible housing. The notion of a transit Green Loop has to be delivered, to make back what we lost with the complex network of trams enjoyed by Sydneysiders at the turn of the century.

Dr John (Jack) Barton is a Research Fellow at the City Futures Research Centre, Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of New South Wales.

Source: South Sydney Herald April 2009 www.southsydneyherald.com.au