15 May 2017
The Sydney Olympic Park draft Master Plan will need more flexibility to respond to the proposed Metro West rail station says, the Urban Taskforce.
“The Master Plan exhibited by Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) last year was a good beginning to move the Olympic precinct from its sporting focus into a well-rounded bustling urban precinct,” says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson. “Since the plan was completed the NSW Government announced a new Metro West rail that would have a station at Olympic Park and this should lead to more robust development.”
“Another reason to call for more flexibility comes from reviewing the submissions made to the plan by stakeholders and leaseholders of land in the Olympic precinct. Amazingly many of the submissions produced their own designs that modified the SOPA plan with much greater variety and greater height. The submissions included heights up to 95 storeys with other proposals up to 70 storeys.”
“The rich array of three dimensional proposals from the private sector needs to be blended with the government’s own plan. The best way to get a truly dynamic town centre is for the government to set a flexible framework that stimulates private sector responses that add innovation and market reality to the centre.”
“To demonstrate how a private public blended master plan could occur, the Urban Taskforce has developed an ‘Urban Ideas’ publication that outlines 10 principles that need to be taken into account in amending the master plan. The publication also highlights the many exciting proposals that have been proposed by the private sector. The Urban Ideas publication as an online version with hot links to the SOPA plan and to submissions by stakeholders is below.
Urban Taskforce Urban Ideas: https://www.urbantaskforce.com.au/https://www.urbantaskforce.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/urbanideas/may2017/
SOPA Plan: http://www.sopa.nsw.gov.au/planning_and_development/master_plan_2030
Stakeholder Submissions: http://planspolicies.planning.nsw.gov.au/?action=list_submissions&job_id=7871&title=Website%20Submissions&type=6
