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The latest news from REDWatch
REDWatch concerns on final Waterloo South People and Place Plan
REDWatch has analysed the changes made by Homes NSW in its final high-level Waterloo South People and Place Plan released 16 October 2025. Of major concern is the removal of recommendations on access to affordable health care and the need for low cost or free options for community spaces and shops. Other recommendations have had language watered down such as earlier "deliver" replaced with "explore" - you can see all the changes in a document comparison. The plan remains only for Waterloo South rather than dealing with the entire estate, however there has been an improvement in demographic figures where they more closely reflect Waterloo South rather than all of Waterloo.
REDWatch primer for Waterloo South Concept Plan and Rezoning Consultation – October 2025
Stockland will release a draft Concept Plan for Waterloo South in late October 2025 for pre-lodgement consultation. In preparation for the consultation, REDWatch has pulled together background material about this more detailed Concept Plan, what it covers and some of the issues that will need to be considered. This document brings together material REDWatch and Stockland have previously made public as well as the latest consultation information.
Scoping: What Changes do Stockland want to make?
With the release of the Stockland and Homes NSW Scoping Proposal for a Rezoning and Concept SSDA for Waterloo Estate (South), we have our first detailed look at some of the changes the Homes NSW and the Stockland consortium wished to make to the proposal in the outlined in the 2022 rezoning and how they plan to proceed. This is a snapshot of what Stockland proposed on 20 August 2025 to Planning NSW and thinking may have changed since this document as a result of further work and consultation.
People and Place Recommendations 2025 Changes from 2024 Draft
The Waterloo South People and Place Plan provides a high-level outline of key recommendations to help deliver positive outcomes for Waterloo people and places. There were a number of changes made to the recommendations in the final version. Many of those changes softened the recommendations by qualifying language as well as removing recommendations relating to access to affordable health care and the need for low cost or free options for community spaces and and shops. This document is produced from a text comparison by REDWatch of the recommendations proposed in the Draft 2024 People and Place Plan with the Final released in October 2025 and shows all changes.
Some Issues for consideration in the Waterloo South Concept Plan
Below REDWatch has outlined some issues that tenants and the broader community might like to consider as they prepare for the consultations in late October 2025 about the Concept Plan and zoning changes proposed by the Stockland consortium. This document will be updated as issues arise and as more information becomes available. The date of the latest changes is shown at the bottom of this page.
Indicative location of housing types across Waterloo Estate (South)
Figure 6 in the Scoping Proposal shows the proposed concept SSDA Scope and shown possible locations for different housing types. This version does not differentiate between in perpetuity affordable housing and that which may not be in perpetuity.
Waterloo South Staging Blocks - Scoping Proposal Fig 5
This map shows Development Blocks within Waterloo Estate (South) colour coded. The report text says “The first detailed SSDAs will relate to Block 8 and Block 9, being the first of six indicative stages of the Waterloo South development illustrated at Figure 5”. This figure comes from the Scoping Proposal for Waterloo Estate South p17.
Stockland Update on Waterloo South Planning and Design - 2 October 2025
This presentation on Waterloo South by Stockland provides an overview of Stockland's commitments for Waterloo South as well as an planning and design update on how Stockland plan to manage consultations and applications over the next year or so. It is aimed at people with an understanding of the planning system and provides a base for the upcoming Concept Plan consultation on planning and design. The file is a 2.2 MB 30 page PDF.
CoS Presentation on Housing Delivery Authority for Resident Action Group Briefing 27 Aug 2025
This is a presentation made by City of Sydney Planners on the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) and the Council's concerns about its impact on planning within the City of Sydney Local Government Area. The presentations shows some examples of sites going to the HDA to gain increased floorspace at the expense of the delivery speed that the HDA is supposed to be facilitating. This presentation was made to Community Groups on 27 August 2025 prior to the NSW Government introducing the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025 which proposes to make the Housing Delivery Agency a permanent part of the Environment Planning and Assessment Act.
Stockland Presentation to REDWatch 7 August 2025
This is a PDF of the presentation made by Stockland to the REDWatch meeting on 7th August 2025. This presentation provides a high level view of what Stockland have committed to and they expect during October November to start detailed consultation with the community about their plans. The presentation is not commercial in confidence that was there in error.
DCJ Housing / Homes NSW response to 2025 Performance Audit of Social Housing
This is a copy of the DCJ response to Audit found in Appendix A of the June 2025 Performance Audit of DCJ Housing now Homes NSW. The letter provides the DCJ acceptance of the Audit recommendations and makes comments on each recommendation. This PDF includes the image of the DCJ Letter appearing in the Audit Report with an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) overlay so it can be more easily copies and searched. The version in the Audit report PDF is not searchable and the web version of the report did not link to the Appendices at the time of posting. Please check any text taken from this file against the underlying image as errors often occur when OCR processing documents.
REDWatch Submission - Changes to reduce Homes NSW exhibitions to 14 Days
These changes were proposed by changes to Community Participation Plan in June-July 2025. The proposed changes were to reduce public exhibition timeframes from 28 to 14 days for certain residential State Significant Development (SSD) applications Submission which included Homes NSW developments. This is REDWatch's submission on that proposal.
Changes to NSW Tenancy Laws – Tenants Union @ REDWatch 3rd July 2025
The Tenant’s Union have been leading the push for these changes so come along to the REDWatch meeting on Thursday 3rd July to hear from the Tenants' Union NSW and learn more about these changes that impact both private and social housing tenants. Everyone welcome and bring your tenancy questions.
REDWatch Meeting on Change of Tenancy Laws with Tenants Union - 3 July 2025
This is the flyer for the above meeting
REDWatch Refresher on the Waterloo South Planning Proposal - 18 June 2025
At the 5 June 2025 REDWatch meeting with Homes NSW and Stockland, REDWatch provided a quick presentation on "Waterloo South Redevelopment: What is already in place". This presentation was updated for the 18 June Waterloo Redevelopment Group. This is a PDF of that presentation that reminds people of what was put in place in November 2022 when the Planning Proposal was approved as well as what has changed since that time. This is a starting point for assessing what happens next with Homes NSW and Stockland.
Homes NSW and Stockland Presentation to REDWatch 5 June 2025
This is a PDF of the presentation made by Homes NSW and Stockland to the REDWatch meeting on 5th June 2025. While 8 weeks had lapsed since the signing of the agreement, many logistics remained to be worked out between Stockland and Homes NSW. As a result the presentation lacked the detail REDWatch had hoped for but it did enable initial conversations to occur between Stockland and informed Waterloo community members.
Waterloo Estate From Rezoning to Consortium appointment 2022-2025
For information about the 2022-2025 period preceding the commencement of relocations for Stage 1 and the appointment of the Consortium see LAHC / Waterloo Estate post zoning planning.
Some background for the community and the consortium on the Waterloo Redevelopment
On 5th June 2025 REDWatch organised a meeting around the next steps in the Waterloo redevelopment. We invited the consortium to brief the community and encouraged the community to bring their questions. The material below was circulated in the REDWatch email update before the meeting to provide the local community and the Consortium with some background prior to the meeting.
Initial Questions for Homes NSW Portfolio and Consortium Partners – Waterloo South Redevelopment May 2025
These questions were prepared by REDWatch following a call out for what people wanted to know now the Consortium agreement has been finalised with Homes NSW. These questions are being circulated prior to the proposed REDWatch Meeting on June 5th 2025 where Homes NSW and the Consortium partners have been invited to brief the community on the proposal and the approach agreed between Homes NSW and the Consortium.
What should planners, architects and development professionals learn from Redfern-Waterloo?
REDWatch Spokesperson, Geoff Turnbull, was asked to join a panel for the Australian Architecture Conference 2025 in May. The panel was titled “Shaping Perspectives: How Architects Lead Public Opinion” and included Emma Williamson, Government Architect Western Australia; UTS A/Prof H.Y. William Chan ex City of Sydney Councillor; Jocelyn Chiew former Director City Design at City of Melbourne; and Michelle Tabet from Left Bankj Co. Below is Geoff’s 5 minute input to the panel based on his experience in Redfern-Waterloo.
Waterloo South Stage 1
On 27 February 2025 tenants in the first stage of the Waterloo South Public Housing Estate Redevelopment received their relocation notices. On 10 April 2025, Homes NSW announced that they had finalised contracts with the Stockland Consortium to undertake the redevelopment. These events marked the the introduction of the consortium to the community and the commencement the next stage in the planning of the redevelopment. This section of the site covers events since February 2025. For information covering Waterloo Estate from 2022 to this point see http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/Waterloo/lahc22-23
Some background for the community and the consortium on the Waterloo Redevelopment
On 5th June 2025 REDWatch organised a meeting around the next steps in the Waterloo redevelopment. We invited the consortium to brief the community and encouraged the community to bring their questions. The material below was circulated in the REDWatch email update before the meeting to provide the local community and the Consortium with some background prior to the meeting.
REDWatch Meeting with Homes NSW and the Consortium – Thursday 5th June 2025
Homes NSW and the Consortium partners are invited to update the community about their agreement and plans for Waterloo South. REDWatch has collected some of the questions looking for answers on our website. All welcome to bring your own questions.
Initial Questions for Homes NSW Portfolio and Consortium Partners – Waterloo South Redevelopment May 2025
These questions were prepared by REDWatch following a call out for what people wanted to know now the Consortium agreement has been finalised with Homes NSW. These questions are being circulated prior to the proposed REDWatch Meeting on June 5th 2025 where Homes NSW and the Consortium partners have been invited to brief the community on the proposal and the approach agreed between Homes NSW and the Consortium.
What should planners, architects and development professionals learn from Redfern-Waterloo?
REDWatch Spokesperson, Geoff Turnbull, was asked to join a panel for the Australian Architecture Conference 2025 in May. The panel was titled “Shaping Perspectives: How Architects Lead Public Opinion” and included Emma Williamson, Government Architect Western Australia; UTS A/Prof H.Y. William Chan ex City of Sydney Councillor; Jocelyn Chiew former Director City Design at City of Melbourne; and Michelle Tabet from Left Bankj Co. Below is Geoff’s 5 minute input to the panel based on his experience in Redfern-Waterloo.
Landcom's Stakeholder Consultation Workbook 0905
You will see references to this report online but the report itself disappeared in late 2015 so we have put it up for easy access. In the Inner Sydney Voice of Summer 2015/16, Wendy Sarkissian, an experienced engagement practitioner and Life Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), said “For practitioners like me, that Workbook provided direction and reassurance and it is definitely a good starting point.” She suggested the workbook be updated and went on to make some suggestions on how UrbanGrowth NSW could improve their community consultation. UrbanGrowth NSW, who controlled Landcom at the time, did not take kindly to advice and the workbook was removed within days from their website, last being mentioned in the 2016 UrbanGrowth NSW Annual Report.
Federal Election 2025 - Statement on lack of Candidate's Forum
For the 2025 Federal election REDWatch along with Alexandria Residents Action Group (ARAG) and Friends of Erskineville (FOE) attempted to organise their regular candidates forum. The forum in the end had to be cancelled as it was not possible to get participation from the local member. This statement explains some of the difficulties of organising local candidate's forums in safe seats like Sydney and calls for all political players in future to work with local community groups to facilitate local candidate forums.
