Following a long absence, the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) is back with its consultants in Waterloo. LAHC wants to talk with the community and stakeholders about a “People and Place guiding framework” it is developing for the next stage of the redevelopment.
LAHC says the framework aims to influence decisions about redevelopment, including what goes in contracts. Below are details of the areas of work, who will lead them and some of LAHC’s expected outcomes.
- Connecting with Country – led by Murawin will reach out to the Aboriginal community and plans to deliver some “guiding principles”, “enduring outcomes” and “key activities”.
- Place Making – led by Hatch Roberts Day plans to deliver some “guiding principles”, “enduring outcomes” and “key activities” through community chats and targeted briefings.
- Future Human Services – led by Urbis plans to supplement the existing Waterloo Human Service Plan to “enhance existing and deliver new community assets and activities to support the future mixed community”.
- Tenant Relocations and Support – led by Department of Communities and Justice, Aboriginal Housing Office and LAHC. They have already been talking to the Waterloo Redevelopment Group and others to propose a relocations plan (due early 2023) “which supports tenants with certainty and wrap-around support services”. While LAHC has said that relocations will not start until 2024, notices to impacted tenants are likely to be delivered mid-2023 to provide the promised six months’ notice.
- Engagement – led by LAHC and Urbis is about establishing connections with the wider community and stakeholders through community chats, briefings and the quarterly newsletter that goes to tenants. You might run into the engagement team outside Woolworths, in the Oz Harvest queue or at the Will2Live Saturday BBQ.
LAHC hopes to introduce the proposed framework to the community and test some ideas that might shape the final framework prior to the caretaker period that precedes the NSW election on March 25, 2023. With the end-of-year shutdown, this will be a huge task if the consultation is to give the community a real say rather than just provide consultants reports with a few community quotes.
In parallel, the rezoning of Waterloo South is expected to be finalised by the end of the year.
Following assessment of the Expressions of Interest (EOI) in October, LAHC expects to go to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage with potential development consortia in December 2022, with the stage 2 RFP in June 2023 and a contract for the redevelopment awarded in December 2023.
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Geoff Turnbull is a co-spokesperson for REDWatch.
