Thousands give feedback on the revised plans for the Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor

More than 2,000 members of the community had their say on the revised strategy to revitalise the 11 station precincts from Sydenham to Bankstown. The Department of Planning and Environment undertook a widespread community engagement program encouraging people to give feedback on the strategy. More than 600 people turned up to a number of information sessions that were held along the corridor.

“We’re really appreciative so many locals came out and shared their views on the revised plan and asked questions of our expert planners about the 20-year vision for this corridor along the proposed Metro train line,” said Brendan Nelson, Deputy Secretary, Growth, Design and Programs.

“Community feedback is vital. Residents are the experts in their neighbourhood and their feedback helps shape the future of their area. In addition to the community sessions, we had about 930 respondents to the online survey.”

The revised strategy is a vision for renewing the town centres around the stations with new homes, shops and businesses. The plan responds to the local community’s views and concerns about the loss of local character, the need for good design, quality open space and community facilities. “The strategy has been devised so the community can benefit from orderly planning, rather than ad-hoc development,” he said.

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The plan for the corridor provides a coordinated approach to delivering more homes and the essential infrastructure needed to support growing communities, while keeping the local character of each area.

“The Department is currently reviewing the submissions and the community feedback we received will help us prepare the final strategy which will be released early next year.

“The community have told us they value good design and they want to ensure new homes are supported by good infrastructure, access to community facilities, open space and pedestrian and cycling paths,” Mr Nelson said.

“Community feedback really shaped the revised plans and resulted in keeping more areas of low-density housing and expanding potential conservation areas in Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park and Marrickville. We are also planning for new, improved or expanded open space in areas where there will be a significant increase in homes and a new linear park is also proposed.”

The Department’s engagement plan included:

• Hosting community drop-in information sessions at Bankstown, Campsie, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Lakemba and Marrickville
• Meetings with community groups
• An online survey
• A letterbox drop to more than 67,000 homes along the corridor to make the community aware the revised strategy was on exhibition
• 5,500 postcards with information about the exhibition handed out at every train station along the corridor
• Brochures translated into four key languages – Greek, Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese
• Providing exhibition documents for viewing at councils (Inner West Council and City of Canterbury Bankstown Council), customer service centres and libraries
• Sent out emails to people who have registered for project updates and key stakeholders.

 

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