2 On Friday October 12, 2018 the Urban Taskforce organised the Creating Communities Conference to demonstrate urban renewal projects that created a sense of community by incorporating a range of community facilities along with parkland and landscaping. World trends were presented on projects in New York, London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as well as local Sydney projects. The timing of the conference was partly in response to the growing negative commentary on “over development” in Sydney that seems to have increased in the build up to the next state election due in March 2019. Many politicians and a number of Sydney newspapers are using the negative aspects of the changing built environment and the need for more infrastructure has driven a mood that is against new development. But large scale precinct wide projects like Central Park on Broadway are large enough to include the infrastructure with the development. The project has a large park, health facilities, child care, gymnasiums, swimming pools, shopping centres and a range of cafes and restaurants. On top of this Sydney’s biggest railway station, Central Railway, is a short walk away as are many bus routes and three universities. By developing well located sites with a mixture of uses a mini town is created within the overall city. The conference set out to explore the best examples of projects like Central Park. A world trend has developed that creates mini cities in large cities. In New York the Hudson Yards project replicates the earlier New York example of the Rockefeller Centre. In London the Battersea Power Station urban renewal was large enough to extend the Northern Line of the London Underground into the centre of the project. Also in London the Lendlease urban renewal project at Elephant Park includes many apartments, affordable housing, parks and community facilities. Lendlease are also developing the London Olympic site into the International Quarter and developing a large $7 billion project at Euston Station. The same company has developed the extensive Barangaroo project in Sydney. The conference also received an update on some of the large Asian urban renewal WORLD TRENDS IN CREATING COMMUNITIES MUST BE SUPPORTED IN SYDNEY Urban Taskforce is keen to have responses to the proposals illustrated in this issue of URBAN IDEAS and we welcome comments to: admin@urbantaskforce.com.au Chris Johnson AM Chief Executive Officer Urban Taskforce Australia projects including the Marina Bay development in Singapore along with examples of large new housing projects next to Singapore’s railway stations as well as Malaysian examples in Kuala Lumpur. Clearly around the world cities are developing new mixed use precincts with a village feel and Sydney is up there with the world’s best in creating new precincts. This issue of Urban Ideas will profile global and local examples of large mixed use projects from a variety of developers and a number of architects and planners. Projects like these will bring local communities along with them as they see the attraction of more local jobs in walking distance and the provision of new community facilities including parks. Sydney will need more developments of this scale but current planning policies are making this difficult. The most likely sites to be renewed are industrial sites that have found the new technologies have made their uses less viable. But the Greater Sydney Commission has developed a ‘prohibition’ policy against any rezoning of existing industrial land in the middle and inner ring of Sydney. Yet new developments on these lands can deliver far more jobs the existing warehouses and storage sheds. A new policy is required to support mini cities within the overall city. Large scale precinct wide projects like Central Park on Broadway are large enough to to include the infrastructure with the development.