Kira Osborne’s departure from the Waterloo Redevelopment Community Development role has provided an opportunity within Counterpoint Community Services for me to take on a different challenge and say goodbye to the Housing Communities Program for a while.
While it is a rather daunting and monumental task to navigate all things master planning and ensuring the voices of Waterloo are heard in the process I am excited to be working in this space, especially as we approach the next phase of the master plan process. Counterpoint’s current Playgroups Coordinator, Natasha Sitanala, will be taking on my previous Housing Communities Program position looking after the Redfern and Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Boards and associated projects. By mid-April we anticipate being fully operational in our new positions and will both be located at the Factory Community Centre.
Over the next couple of months in my new role, we will be preparing the community to enter the “options testing” phase that sees the NSW government presenting different options for the Waterloo Master Plan to the community for input and feedback. Once this feedback is gathered and integrated into the plan, Land and Housing Corp will present a preferred Master Plan to the community.
To prepare the local CALD communities for these next steps, our two Chinese and Russian Bilingual Community Educators will continue weekly outreach on the estate and together with Thomas Chailloux from Inner Sydney Voice will lead a number of roundtable discussions and activities on a range of planning topics.
In addition, prior to options testing starting, a series of study sessions will be held to explore the nine different technical studies that have been conducted by consultants including transport, air pollution, open space, and arts and culture. These sessions will provide the community with information about the technical study process and the opportunity for conversations about the key findings, existing conditions found and to identify any gaps that have not been addressed.
It is going to be a very busy and interesting time in the coming months for our local community and we encourage people to come out, ask questions, and have their say!
