Green Square Town Centre
The Green Square Town Centre is proposed to become the commercial, retail and cultural hub of the Green Square Urban Renewal Area. A new package of planning controls to encourage development of the Town Centre was adopted in April 2006 by Council and the Central Sydney Planning Committee (CSPC). The gazettal of the Local Environmental Plan in December 2006, was a significant planning milestone which brought the realisation of the Town Centre vision another step closer to reality.
The detailed design of the new infrastructure and public domain within the Town Centre is well advanced, as Landcom (with the City of Sydney) prepares to bring the Green Square Town Centre to fruition. The approval in November 2008 of development applications for the essential infrastructure and public domain are important milestones in that process. The plans supporting these applications were based on extensive community input and feedback.
The City of Sydney and Landcom are the major drivers behind the Town Centre. Landcom is working with the City of Sydney and is responsible for managing the implementation, primarily the delivery of new public infrastructure and public domain. This partnership approach is integral to ensuring the future success of the Green Square Town Centre.
Landcom is also representing the State Government as a developer within the Town Centre to implement the Metropolitan Strategy objectives. For more information on the Town Centre project and Landcom’s role in its implementation visit http://www.gstc.com.au/default.aspx.
Where is the Green Square Town Centre?
The Green Square Town Centre is primarily located in the suburb of Zetland, at the confluence of Botany Road, Bourke Street and O’Riordan Street. It is part of the larger Green Square Urban Renewal Area and is strategically located 4.5km south of the Sydney Central Business District. Its transport hub is the Green Square Railway Station.
The Town Centre covers an area of 13.74 hectares containing some large key sites owned by various public entities, both state and local, such as the former Waterloo Incinerator site owned by Landcom, Waverley Council’s Works Depot, the NSW Police Service Centre, and the former South Sydney Hospital site owned by the City of Sydney. The Town Centre also contains the Green Square Railway Station and other privately owned land holdings.
What is the Vision for the Green Square Town Centre?
The vision for the Town Centre is that of a new and vibrant centre, a place where people will live and work, a place to shop, for entertainment, restaurants and cultural and community activities. It will be home to approximately 5,500 residents and about 7,000 people are expected to work in the Town Centre.
The mix of transport modes will provide a high level of access and mobility making connections from east to west and north to south simple. The Town Centre will also be a place to enjoy cycling and walking. It will have a network of open spaces, with places for relaxation and recreation as well as venues for community events.
New development will join seamlessly with adjacent neighbourhoods, with new buildings at the edges, at a compatible scale and adding to the existing character.
It is expected that the Town Centre will become a flagship for sustainable development, creating a clean and green new community, integrating water management, energy efficiency, good public transport accessibility, the provision of community facilities and long term economic viability.
Background to the Town Centre project
The urban form, structure and implementation mechanism proposed for the Town Centre result from some years of planning, technical investigations, design competitions, design development and consultation.
The site was earmarked by Council and the State Government for the development of a new town centre during the process of defining the Green Square Urban Renewal Area in the late 1990s. The site was excluded from the Stage 1 rezoning of Green Square in 1999, to allow for the integrated master planning of the Town Centre.
Initially, the former South Sydney Development Corporation and Landcom led the Town Centre planning process under a directive by the then Minister for Planning, and in consultation with the Department of Planning and the former South Sydney City Council. The documents produced, comprised of a Draft Local Environmental Plan, Draft Masterplan and supporting studies, were publicly exhibited during June/July 2003. A number of submissions were made in response to the public exhibition.
With the formation of the Joint Council and CSPC Green Square Taskforce in November 2004, the City took the lead role and has steered the project, in collaboration with Landcom and in consultation with the Department of Planning.
Issues raised in submissions received in response to the 2003 public exhibition together with further investigations and analysis, such as a detailed urban design review and a flood study, contributed to the refinements of the documents exhibited in 2003. The planning controls that were publicly exhibited in 2005 and adopted in April 2006 result from the review process undertaken.
In addition, significant legislative changes that came into place in 2005 which impacted on the Town Centre plans were considered in the redrafting of the new documents.
A package of new planning controls
In April 2006, Council and the CSPC approved a package of new planning controls for the Town Centre after public exhibition. It includes:
- South Sydney Local Environmental Plan 1998 (Amendment No.17) – Green Square Town Centre (the Town Centre LEP),
- South Sydney Development Control Plan 1997: Urban Design – Part H: Green Square Town Centre (the Town Centre DCP), and
- Green Square Town Centre Infrastructure Strategy.
The Town Centre LEP
The LEP defines permissible land uses, development sites, building heights and gross floor area. The LEP breaks up the land to which it applies into public domain and development sites. The LEP enables a higher development potential to encourage high density redevelopment, supported by adequate infrastructure and high quality public domain.
The Town Centre LEP is an amendment (No.17) to the parent legal instrument, South Sydney Local Environmental Plan 1998. The LEP was gazetted on 22 December 2006, however, it does not currently operate in respect of land within the Town Centre, as the whole of this land is a "deferred matter" (under section 68(5) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979). The process of land "un-deferral" is explained below under Infrastructure Strategy.
You can download the Town Centre LEP as gazetted on 22 December 2006.
The Town Centre DCP
The DCP supports the primary planning controls set in the LEP. It contains a set of guiding principles and defines in detail the main structural elements that will realise the Town Centre vision. The DCP focuses on the details that need to be considered for the design of buildings (eg. location of activities, building alignment, sun access etc) as well as the design of the public domain.
The DCP is an amendment to South Sydney Development Control Plan 1997: Urban Design, known as Part H: Green Square Town Centre, which you can download as a PDF.
The Town Centre Infrastructure Strategy
It is anticipated that the Green Square Town Centre will evolve over a significant period. While it is difficult to predict the uptake of development, it is reasonable to assume that a town centre of this magnitude will require more than a decade to implement in full. Key items of infrastructure, however, have been identified, and these are identified in the Infrastructure Strategy that was approved in April 2006.
You can download the Green Square Town Centre Infrastructure Strategy as a PDF.
The Strategy details how the delivery of the infrastructure can take place. It recognises that the identified infrastructure is reasonably essential to achieve appropriate public amenity and meet basic needs to support higher density development. The Strategy also recognises land within the Town Centre can only be rezoned as set out in the LEP if the appropriate level of services and public domain can be provided and Council is satisfied of this requirement.
To ensure this, rezoning of Town Centre land will only proceed for those sites where the infrastructure requirement can be met. The remainder will be deferred until this requirement can be satisfied. The process of ‘un-deferring’ or activating land is outlined in the Infrastructure Strategy. It is anticipated Planning Agreements between the Council and landowners are the likely mechanism to achieve this outcome.
Recent LEP and DCP amendments
Council in August 2008 and the CSPC in July 2008 endorsed, after public exhibition, amendments to the Town Centre LEP and DCP. The amendments are to enable development for a below ground level communal car park and retail facilities underneath the Neighbourhood and Civic Plazas within the Town Centre. Clauses to manage the overall amount of car parking permissible for the development sites in the Town Centre and to define requirements for the design and management of the car park are also included in these amendments.
The amendments to the Town Centre LEP have not yet been gazetted. You can view the draft LEP amendment as was adopted by Council and the CSPC here.
The Town Centre DCP available for download already incorporates the amendments.
Downloads
Green Square Town Centre Local Environmental Plan
- Green Square Town Centre LEP | PDF 280Kb
- Green Square Town Centre LEP - Maps | PDF 266Kb
Green Square Town Centre Infrastructure Strategy
Green Square Town Centre Development Control Plan
- Part H: Green Square Town Centre | PDF 2Mb
For More Information
Lila Contziu
Green Square & Major Development Projects Manager
Tel: 02 9246 7569
Email: lcontziu@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
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