Minister Stokes and the Department of Planning Industry and Environment (DPIE) are now responsible for determining the future shape of the Waterloo South public housing redevelopment. City of Sydney Council (CoS) and the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) were unable to reach agreement by the Minister’s deadline.
An independent advisory group (IAG) will advise DPIE. It includes Geoffrey London, former Government Architect in Victoria and Western Australia; Sue Holliday, former Director General of the NSW Department of Planning; and James Cain, former Executive Director of Major Projects Victoria, and former Lend Lease General Manager for Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
The IAG is to explore the differences between CoS and LAHC proposals, establish the project’s economic viability and make a recommendation to DPIE. Both LAHC and CoS will make presentations and respond to queries. DPIE will do its usual “gateway” review and Minister Stokes will sign off on the resultant proposal.
A different section of DPIE will act in Council’s place to finalise the documents and organise the public exhibition. Under the minister’s 10-week timetable a planning proposal should be decided within DPIE by the end of April with exhibition possible in early June 2021.
Representations were made by CoS, local NGOs and public housing tenants to Minister Stokes for tenant input into the process. You can see some of these letters and the concerns raised on the REDWatch website home page and its Waterloo South tab.
North Eveleigh Vision Consultation extended
Transport for NSW (TfNSW) will now accept community feedback on its Strategic Vision for North Eveleigh until April 23. While the Vision document on exhibition only deals with North Eveleigh, DPIE has also issued broader study requirements that cover the station and development above platforms 11 and 12, as well as the need for TfNSW to address wider connectivity concerns. Also released is the report from last year’s place design forum.
Searching “Redfern North Eveleigh” will bring up the TfNSW consultation site and the DPIE website with all these documents or head to the North Eveleigh tab on the REDWatch website for the documents and some of its concerns.
