[REDWatch Heritage] Update on UrbanGrowth Engagement and Issues

Wed Apr 29 09:43:24 EST 2015

Dear North Eveleigh and Heritage people

This email was put together for the Central to Eveleigh list but it is also
contains information relevant to those with an interest in Heritage and
North Eveleigh.

C2E Newsletter and Websites

UrbanGrowth C2E has put out an enewsletter dealing with some updates on
their activities and a new round of community engagement. You will have
received this if you have registered on the Central to Eveleigh website. The
latest newsletter is available
<http://urbangrowthnsw.cmail1.com/t/ViewEmail/y/910DFB4BAE126D6C> here and
we suggest you get added to their newsletter list. The C2E news updates are
taken from the engage site (see below) so keep an eye on this and you will
probably see announcement as they happen rather than wait until a
newsletter.

There are three websites dealing with different parts of Central to Eveleigh
that you should be aware of and they are not easy to navigate. Currently:

*	http://engage.centraltoeveleigh.com.au - this is where the more
recent material is being posted - it is hard to navigate as much depends on
links in articles - we suggest you use the site map at the foot of the page
to see what is there until UrbanGrowth make it more user friendly.
*	www.central2eveleigh.com.au that redirects to the main Major Urban
Transformation Projects page on the UrbanGrowth NSW website
www.urbangrowthnsw.com.au - the C3E section holds the early C2E material. It
is also where you register for updates for any of their projects. It is not
a community friendly process and you have to classify yourself as "Other" as
all the other categories are for development industry players.
*	www.ugdc.nsw.gov.au - this is where the old RWA / SMDA material is
located and we are advised this site will be revamped in the near future -
this is where you find material about affordable housing and BEP2 public
housing plans and earlier plans that C2E is inheriting.

City of Sydney has said they will also alert people to UrbanGrowth
engagements via a page on their Sydney Your Say site.

Next Round of C2E Engagement

The enewsletter includes a link to some of the next round of community
engagement. You can see this information and register from their "online
engagement" hub
<http://engage.centraltoeveleigh.com.au/welcome-to-the-central-to-eveleigh-c
onsultation/news_feed/your-participation> here. 

The new round of engagement includes:

*	A randomly selected paid community panel of 40 local community
members from a range of age groups and suburbs met on 18th April for a day
and are expected to meet for another day in June and some evenings in August
and October at different milestones of the project. They are to give
in-depth feedback to UrbanGrowth C2E on their thinking. This group has been
called deliberative and REDWatch has asked for the details of this group
selection and process to be made publically available so that it can be
assessed if the process is really neutral or tilted, as has happened
earlier.
*	Study Night presenting the methodology and initial findings of draft
study of Social facilities - 6 May 6.30 to 8.30pm Yaama - this should bring
in the earlier studies on community facilities undertaken by RWA / SMDA and
LAHC. Please not cut off for this study group is 5pm Thursday 30th April -
only 2-3 days after UrbanGrowth advise people of the new round of
consultation. Very short notice is very poor community engagement practice
as it excludes people who have made other commitments. It is known for
example that due to a conference in Melbourne key agencies working with
public housing communities cannot attend a discussion about their
facilities.
*	Study Night presenting the methodology and initial findings of draft
study of Heritage - 12 May 6.30 to 8.30pm Yaama Dhiyann. Hopefully this also
deals with the recommendation of the RWA Redfern Waterloo Heritage taskforce
that there be an ongoing Heritage mechanism especially across the former
Eveleigh Workshop precinct.
*	Study Night on presenting the methodology and initial findings of
draft study of Housing diversity - 19 May 6.30 to 8.30pm Yaama Dhiyann. This
will be particularly interesting for those with an interest in public
housing, affordable housing and housing affordability. RWA's BEP2 proposed
to move out 1 in 5 public tenants in redeveloping the housing estates and
was not considered viable by Government or the community.
*	From 23rd of May UrbanGrowth C2E will have a stall at Eveleigh
markets on the 4th Saturday of month. We have also asked UrbanGrowth C2E for
specific mechanisms to talk to public housing communities.
*	UrbanGrowth will be inviting a number of community and resident
groups in the corridor interested in the process of developing the urban
transformation strategy to a dedicated night to hear more from UrbanGrowth's
team. While UrbanGrowth are saying they want to meet with community groups
individually they have been very reluctant to have an ongoing mechanism with
community groups in one room which groups have asked for. The fact that it
is not clear if this is a one off or part of a series of meetings (similar
to the paid random group) and that there is no date strengthens perceptions
resident groups are being managed rather than being engaged by UrbanGrowth
in the process.
*	All day Community Workshop on Saturday 30 May at CarriageWorks on
the draft design and planning principles. At the workshop UrbanGrowth will
provide feedback on the progress of a vision for the area following the
workshop. Registration is on line.
*	From 30 May to the end of June UrbanGrowth will be asking for
comments on the draft design and planning principles for C2E through a
number of activities including a workshop and an updated online engagement
portal.

Confirmed Redfern and Waterloo Public Housing Estates Under C2E

At a recent meeting between organisations working with public housing
communities in Redfern and Waterloo and UrbanGrowth C2E, UrbanGrowth
confirmed that they are proposing to put out plans to increase densities on
the public housing estates linked to a proposed Waterloo Station on the
Sydney Rapid Transit Line. Sydney University is competing with UrbanGrowth
for a proposed station near the university at Victoria Park. Transport for
NSW is expected to start consultations on the station location in the next
few months.

Some of the reports being looked at on the study nights will be based on the
earlier RWA reports which were never released. There are major concerns
among local agencies about how UrbanGrowth with engage appropriately with
Public Housing Tenants as well as the wider community. Public tenants have
been involved in unsatisfactory consultations with the RWA and its
successors and Housing NSW / Land and Housing Corporation about the future
of these estates for many years.

Those working with public housing tenants have expressed concern that this
current round of engagements are being undertaken without UrbanGrowth making
it clear to public housing communities that the future of their estates will
be governed by the current C2E processes such as the study night reports..

City of Sydney UrbanGrowth MOU Report

City of Sydney has recently dealt with a report to Council on their
involvement with UrbanGrowth under their MOU - you can see the Council
report at - at UrbanGrowth NSW - Update on Major Urban Renewal Projects.
<http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/231323/15042
1_PDC_ITEM07.pdf> The report advises that the City Council and UrbanGrowth
have started discussions on the MOU for Central to Eveleigh. The report says
Council has been advising UrbanGrowth on community engagement including the
much criticised December Workshop (you can see REDWatch's concerns about
this meeting at REDWatch Comments on C2E Forum and UrbanGrowth Response
<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/corridor/141216ug> ). Most recently
Chippendale Residents Interest Group (CRIG) has written an open letter to
Minister Rob Stokes raising their concerns about UrbanGrowth C2E Community
Consultation. You can read it here
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_dRdr3JxU5GUS1HREx3czBJcDQ/view> .

Australian Technology Park Heritage Open Day

While UrbanGrowth may be considering the Expressions of Interest (EOI) for
the sale of the ATP, the Technology Park has announced a Heritage Open Day
on Saturday 23 May 2015 from 10am to 3pm. You can find more details and book
for tours at www.atp.com.au. 

With the potential sale of the ATP we encourage everyone to come and take
this opportunity to discover this important heritage location and get an
understanding of why the City of Sydney Independent Report by HillPDA
Consulting made a number of recommendations including that the Heritage part
of the site should stay in Government hands.

In their enewsletter UrbanGrowth said they will discuss the report with
Council. As earlier advised the council documents included a Mayoral Minute
<http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/226833/15022
3_COUNCIL_ITEM35.pdf>  and the HillPDA report Australian Technology Park
(ATP) Eveleigh Stage 1 Call for Expressions of Interest An independent
review of the opportunities and risks relating to the Sale of the ATP
<http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/226834/15022
3_COUNCIL_ITEM35_ATTACHMENTA.PDF> . Copies of the report are also available
from Benjamin Pechey at City of Sydney bpechey at cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au. 

On line you can see the REDWatch Submission on the ATP Sale EOI
<http://www.redwatch.org.au/RWA/statesignificant/atp/sale/150315red> .

In other ATP heritage news the NSW Minister for Heritage recently granted
ATP site-specific exemptions from approvals required under section 57 (1) of
the Heritage Act 1977. Click here to read more in NSW Government Gazette No.
22 - Government Notices.
<http://www.atp.com.au/ArticleDocuments/NSW%20Government%20Gazette%20No%2022
_13%20March%202015_site%20specific%20exemptions_Australian%20Technology%20Pa
rk.pdf.aspx>  These provisions were not included in the Conservation
Management Plan so have been made subsequently.

Restoration of Chief Mechanical Engineer's (CME) Building 

After year of arguing that the CMEs building did not have to continue to
fall down waiting for the future of North Eveleigh to be determined there is
a move to restore the Building. Some residents in Wilson Street used the
last UrbanGrowth consultation to argue the CME's building had to be one of
the quick wins that UrbanGrowth were talking about delivering. In their
latest newsletter UrbanGrowth C2E say a project manager, Otto Cserhalmi and
Partners (OCP), has been appointed to provide advice on the appropriate
method to restore the CME building and locals should see people around the
site in the near future. UrbanGrowth acknowledge the "persistence and
dedication of a number of local community members" - well done to the Wilson
Street residents and those who took the time to sign their petition and use
the C2E web feedback portal to nominate it as a quick win.

Information Sharing

There are some similarities between the way UrbanGrowth are going about
their mandate and the early RWA. Both were focused on driving their agenda,
had poor communications with the community and were not very interested in
listening to what residents groups had to say. The only real solution when
transparency is low is for people to exchange what information they have so
that together they get the picture of what is happening and make considered
responses. You will not find everything in this email on the UrbanGrowth
sites because it comes from different sources.

Please share any information which you think might be useful, including this
email, with others.

Regards,

Geoff

Geoffrey Turnbull

Spokesperson

REDWatch

Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490  Mob: 0418 457 392

email: mail at redwatch.org.au 

web: www.redwatch.org.au 

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