[North Eveleigh] Candidate Forums / REDWatch meeting follow-up / Rosehill Street SSDA / CME CMP

Wed Feb 8 15:11:00 AEDT 2023

Dear REDWatch members, supporters and agencies,

Heffron Electorate Candidate’s Forum tonight 8 Feb 2023 7pm Alexandria Town Hall

Newtown Electorate Candidate’s Forum Wednesday March 15th at 7pm, Erskineville Town Hall

Inner City NSW Electorate Boundary Changes

Other Pre-Election Events

Follow on from REDWatch forum on Public Social and Affordable housing.

44-78 Rosehill Street goes for Redfern Seniors Housing and Medical Scheme as State Significant Development

Chief Mechanical Engineers Building (CME) SSDA Exhibition until 21 February 2023
Please note – this email contains hyperlinks. This means that if you see a blue underlined word or phrase that you can click on it and go directly to a document or to get more information.
Heffron Electorate Candidate’s Forum tonight 8 Feb 2023 7pm Alexandria Town Hall
For those who might not have picked this event up through social media, posters or the last REDWatch meeting – the Heffron Candidate’s forum is tonight, Wednesday, 8 February, at 7pm at Alexandria Town Hall. The forum is earlier than expected as Alexandria Residents Action Group (ARAG) are only meeting every second month this year.
The forum tonight will feature three speakers:

  *   Philippa Veitch - Greens
  *   Sarina Kilham - Independent
  *   Rachel Evans - Socialist Alliance.
It was not possible to get agreement from the ALP candidate and local Heffron MP, Ron Hoenig to participate.
There will be a live stream of this event from the ARAG Facebook page accessible here<https://www.facebook.com/Alexandria-Residents-Action-Group-ARAG-824474024283748>
As all of Waterloo is within Heffron REDWatch has joined with ARAG to host this event. For more information visit here<https://arag.org.au/2023/01/19/2023-nsw-state-election-heffron-candidate-forum-vote-for-your-top-3-issues-that-matter-to-you/>.
Newtown Electorate Candidate’s Forum Wednesday March 15th at 7pm, Erskineville Town Hall
With the suburbs of Redfern, Eveleigh and Darlington in the electorate of Newtown REDWatch is joining with Friends of Erskineville and ARAG (a part of Alexandria is also in Newtown) for a Newtown forum.
Confirmed attendees, so far, are Jenny Leong (Greens) and David Hetherington (Labor) and all confirmed candidates will be invited.
The candidates will speak about the top issues voted on by the community, followed by a Q&A session. A survey will be available soon to allow the community to determine the top issues for candidates to speak about in their opening comments.
More details will be here<https://click.actionnetwork.org/ss/c/atcYNHk4Eh2YdGnwBh-YDPAZiEt8wwS6hp5wOIb3CiJwfmolR_YSBrlCrfSH-QM5hETfJ3a8iwJKrqZhf3fjFDYoF3Ok2omaBA2L0DqXQUJ2k5r4E4WyNJHXcTWwIag3PbdQupvNE1YO3FIcZict-uNiBMtuyFI_LaVezhoymkmIeQbP76MLtgrCM0iskrHrnPtGxl2yY_zf-tR6cwwmQT3P6lk50FSQWvMgoYZuEL5VaN58O2elvLn5kpt-GGIQrhh7bR27wvnJI3-hAMZdP0Aycw5fKXXujWUz_rlda7B3GqlKR-XP1CqzkK86j89LXq1gMdkC1pIf4NOE-mmDfR4CmApxGP1Z2lTLS8axbag/3te/Pz5yXrQxTZu6ENMm1p-5Pw/h2/5qSBhmft-4nEcxKOrmzxpMjOW-o9m4tFga2h9Y5bFmw> as the event approaches.
Inner City NSW Electorate Boundary Changes
The electorate boundaries have changed for the coming state election. For example Heffron now includes all of Waterloo, so Newtown loses Waterloo public housing. On the other side Heffron also loses its parts of Surry Hills to the electorate of Sydney. Parts of Alexandria also change electorates.
The South Sydney Herald has put information on the boundary changes on its website, so you can check how you can check your electorate in its post - What’s your state electorate? Check as boundaries have changed<https://southsydneyherald.com.au/whats-your-electorate-check-as-boundarieshave-changed/>
Other Pre-Election Events
In the lead up to the NSW Election there will be a number of activities that will touch on housing that might be of interest to our network. Two that we are aware of are:

  *   Rally for Housing Justice at Sydney Town Hall at 12pm Saturday 11th of February
  *   Housing for all NSW Election Town Hall Event organised by Homelessness NSW and The Community Housing Industry Association NSW on 16 February at 1:00pm, Sydney Town Hall.
Follow on from REDWatch forum on Public Social and Affordable housing.
The REDWatch meeting last week on Public Social and Affordable Housing was well received. We have been asked if the session was recorded to be shared, but regrettably the meeting was not recorded. REDWatch has offered the three speakers the opportunity to place statements on their party’s positions on our website. What we receive will be placed on the REDWatch website in the NSW Housing Policy<http://www.redwatch.org.au/issues/nswpolicy> section.
For the South Sydney Herald Cathy Callaghan has prepared an article NSW 2023 State Election – I Rent and I Vote<https://southsydneyherald.com.au/nsw-2023-state-election-i-rent-and-i-vote/> which looks at the housing policy positions of the Liberal, Labor and Greens parties for the March NSW Election. This article summaries some of the material we heard at the REDWatch meeting from Shelter’s perspective.
Shelter NSW also presented at the REDWatch meeting on its ask for the 2023 NSW Election. You can read more about Shelter’s ask at Shelter NSW 2023 Election - 5 Asks<https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NSW-State-Election-2023-Shelter-NSW-Platform-One-Page.pdf> and Shelter NSW 2023 State Election platform<https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/221206_Shelter-NSW-2023-State-Election-platform.pdf>. At the meeting reference was also made to recent research undertaken about social housing waiting lists – you can see that research here - Managing Access to Social Housing<https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Waithood_paper.pdf>. You may also like to look at the NSW Tenants Union’s State of the Renters NSW<https://www.tenants.org.au/tu/state-renters-nsw> website, where you can see how much of different sorts of housing there are in your local council area.
44-78 Rosehill Street goes for Redfern Seniors Housing and Medical Scheme as State Significant Development
This is a 2544sqm site between Rosehill Street and Cornwallis Lane opposite the southern end of Rosehill Street Park. It was part of the proposed rezoning along the Regent Street / Botany Road corridor. Following significant objection from surrounding residents in the residential units in Cornwallis Street, Council removed the site from its rezoning.
The developer which had been asked to wait until the Council rezoning and then did not get the land it wanted to redevelop rezoned, has now taken a proposal to the state government as a proponent-initiated planning proposal rather than through Council.
The new proposal is for a 14 storey mixed-use building with a split built form comprising of seniors housing, including a residential care facility and independent living units, hospital, medical centre and medical research facility and retail space. The proponent says it has addressed most of the objections raised in response to the earlier Council Planning Proposal.
The initial proposal details are now public as the Department of Planning has released the Industry specific SEARs for the development. You can see the documents at SSD-53873461 Application and SEARs<https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/redfern-seniors-housing-and-medical-scheme>.
Chief Mechanical Engineers Building (CME) SSDA Exhibition until 21 February 2023
A reminder that the Transport Asset Management Entity (TAHE) and Transport for NSW (TfNSW), which are handling the redevelopment of Redfern North Eveleigh, have put forward a proposal for the adaptive reuse of Chief Mechanical Engineers building on Wilson Street. The proposal is on exhibition through the NSW Major Projects portal until 21 February 2023 as 505 Wilson Street, Redfern - CME Building<https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/505-wilson-street-redfern-cme-building>.
In our last update we expressed our concern that the relevant Conservation Management Plan (CMP) had not been released. We have followed this up with TfNSW who have advised that the current CMP is that undertaken by Curio Projects. TfNSW further advise that the release of the CMP was not released as it was not required under the Planning Secretary’s Environment Assessment Requirements which specifies the studies that need to be prepared. A development proposal for a major heritage items that does not include the requirement that the CMP be made available is a concern.
TfNSW have advised that TfNSW are not adverse to making the CMP available if DPE should agree. REDWatch will continue to pursue this with TfNSW and DPE to try and get the CME’s CMP made public.

Regards,

Geoff
Geoffrey Turnbull
REDWatch Co-Spokesperson
Ph Wk: (02) 8004 1490  Mob: 0418 457 392
email: spokesperson at redwatch.org.au
web: www.redwatch.org.au<http://www.redwatch.org.au/>
FB: www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/<http://www.facebook.com/RedfernEveleighDarlingtonWaterlooWatch/>

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