WATERLOO: The six high-rise towers are not covered by the Waterloo public housing rezoning plan lodged by Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) with the City of Sydney. In an earlier LAHC staging plan, the excluded area is not redeveloped for 13 to 18 years. The towers are now divided into two new precincts, Waterloo Central (Banks, Cook and shops) and Waterloo North (Marton, Turanga, Matavai and Solander).
The lodged proposal, called Waterloo South, covers 12.32 hectares or 65 per cent of the total master-planned site. This area includes 749 existing public housing units, consisting of all the walk-ups and the mid-rises within the estate. The area covered by the rezoning application also includes all 125 privately owned dwellings and the commercial property.
The key feature of Waterloo South is two promised parks, including a central park adjacent to the new Metro station, similar to that requested by Council. Open space has increased by 4,000 square metres over the earlier plan, to 2.57 hectares. The amended proposal also includes wider tree-lined streets and expanded bike paths.
The proposal cuts the maximum building heights from 40 to 32 storeys, compared to Council’s suggested 13 storeys. Where the earlier plan aimed for 6,800 dwellings across the entire estate, the new plan is for 6,200.
The lodged plan delivers 3,000 of these dwellings plus the parks, space for businesses, shops and community facilities. Social housing will make up 30 per cent (900 units). The balance is private and affordable housing, but no split is revealed.
While LAHC lodged with Council sometime mid-May, the first details became public only when Council posted some high-level details on its website late on Friday May 29. The Sunday Telegraph carried the government information drop on May 31 online, behind a paywall and inaccessible to the majority of affected tenants.
The Waterloo Communities Plus website now provides visuals that give some idea of the proposal, but there is no indicative map showing layout of Waterloo South.
The community requested the release of all information equivalent to that supplied for LAHC’s earlier preferred plan, but this has not happened. As it did then, by splitting the Metro from the estate, LAHC only provides half a plan, making it difficult to assess the proposal, as it can only be considered alongside what borders it now, not what might be built in the future at Waterloo Central and North.
Minister Pavey has said the proposal will include “an additional 100 new social housing dwellings in the area”. It is not clear if this refers to only Waterloo South, where there will be an increase of 151 social housing units, or if this sets an estate-wide target increase to 2,112.
Before any redevelopment of the towers, there would be 2,163 social housing units – 900 in Waterloo South and 1,263 in the existing high-rises. Thirty per cent of the proposed 6,200 would only deliver 1,860 social housing units.
In the 2011 redevelopment proposal, the towers were not included as they were said to be in sound condition, but infill development was proposed around them. In its alternative plan, Council proposed retaining and renovating some of the towers as a way to deliver more social housing. Although preferring demolition and rebuild, LAHC’s options kept open the possibility of retention. What happens with the towers is still to be determined.
The LAHC application is being assessed by Council. City staff will then prepare a planning proposal for consideration by Council and the Central Sydney Planning Committee.
The community will see the detail of the proposal, with its rumoured 10,000 pages of reports, when the staff proposal is presented to a Council committee in several months’ time. If supported, Council will seek a gateway determination from the NSW government for public consultation, which is when the community can have its say. Council will lead the community consultation.
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Geoff Turnbull is a co-spokesperson for REDWatch.
