19 June 2013
The announcement of a new structure plan for up to 57,000 jobs in Western Sydney is a strong move towards delivering half of Sydneys new jobs in the next 20 years in this region, says the Urban Taskforce.
The commitment of $70 million towards the upgrade of Old Wallgrove Road in yesterdays budget will help stimulate job related projects in Western Sydney, says Urban Taskforce CEO, Chris Johnson. Much more infrastructure will ultimately be needed to really get this vast area of over 10,000 hectares serviced to enable the job targets to be reached.
The best way to drive expenditure on infrastructure in Western Sydney will be through the commitment to a Western Sydney airport on Badgerys Creek which is in the middle of the employment area. Clearly the noise contours need to determine where particular types of buildings are located but there is the potential to develop a significant employment hub around a new airport.
A new airport will attract significant Federal Government funds for infrastructure particularly to improve the connection into Sydneys CBD
The draft Structure Plan for the Broader Western Sydney Employment Area has many positive features but more mixed use zoning including residential would help the area develop a more normal urban culture while focussing on jobs. The area is massive and is equivalent to the area from Sydney Airport past Central Station across the Harbour to North Sydney. Such a large area cannot be dedicated to only one use.
It is important that Western Sydney develops a range of jobs from industrial to financial industry, consulting services and jobs related to the new technologies. In this way the graduates of the University of Western Sydney will have future employment opportunities in their own region.
While the potential to stimulate 57,000 new jobs over 30 years in the Employment Area is impressive, the Government still has a massive task to get 170,000 new jobs in Western Sydney in only 20 years. Todays release of the draft Structure Plan is the beginning of this task.
