Planning the Harold Park Development

Greetings from the Annandale Neighbourhood Centre in the Inner West of Sydney, where a public meeting called by the Leichhardt Municipal Council has called a meeting to discuss the planning implications of the Harold Park Development. This is the redevelopment of the previous Harold Park Paceway trotting track by Mirvac in a multi-hundred million dollar development.

Some of the issues for the local community are traffic, public transport, parking and community housing. The site is an attractive one, being near Sydney Harbor, parkland with the Sydney Light Rail having an existing station adjacent and former Rozelle Tram Depot available for development. There is space on the site reserved for community housing, but who would develop this and where the funding would come from is not clear.

As Jamie Parker MP pointed out at the meeting, one difficulty for planing purposes is that the development is near the boundary between the City of Sydney and Leichhardt Council, with planning responsibilities falling formally on the City of Sydney. The Johnston's Canal is the boundary between the two local planning areas.

There are some good points with the development, such as extensive bicycle paths planned.

One issue raised at the meeting was possible contaminated soil on site. There was a Remediation Action Plan (Document Reference: 10011RP01_v06, 20th October 2010). The major issue for contamination are the former Rozelle Tram Depot (which is reported to still contain six vintage trams). Electrical transformers used for supplying trams with power have used Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), a toxic and possibly carcinogenic material.

There was also an Archaeological Assessment of the site.

There is an extensive list of planning documents from the City of Sydney:

1. Council Meeting – Item 8.5 (February 2011)
2. Central Sydney Planning Committee – Item 7 (February 2011)
3. Planning Development and Transport Committee – Item 5 (February 2011
4. Central Sydney Planning Committee – Item 6 (October 2010) | PDF 90Kb
5. Lord Mayoral Minute – Item 3 (September 2010) | PDF 74Kb
6. Central Sydney Planning Committee – Item 4 (July 2010) | PDF 156Kb
7. Planning Development and Transport Committee – Item 3 (July 2010) | PDF 156Kb
8. Community Workshop 2 – Planning Presentation | PDF 505Kb (February 2010)
9. Community Workshop 2 – Urban Design Study | PDF 13Mb (February 2010)
10. Community Update Meeting Presentation (December 2009)
11. Phase 1 Consultation Summary (November 2009)
12. Community Workshop 1 – Planning Presentation (September 2009)
13. Community Workshop 1 – Urban Design Presentation (September 2009)
14. Gateway Determination (September 2009)
15. Planning Proposal (August 2009)
16. Central Sydney Planning Committee – Item 7 (July 2009)
17. Lord Mayor's Minute - Item 2.1 (June 2009)
18. NSW Department of Planning – Local Plan Making Fact Sheet | PDF 344Kb