3.4 Environment and Sustainability

The Rouse Hill Strategic Centre currently offers a diverse array of environmental assets and features that are regularly used by the community. These include existing green links (the Greenway Link and Caddies Creek Trail), public domain areas, parks and local creeks and tributaries. The existing Rouse Hill Town Centre also incorporates an array of sustainability initiatives seeking to reduce energy and water usage and enhance the performance of the built environment for Rouse Hill.

As Rouse Hill continues to grow and evolve, further consideration must be given to sustainability and the environment. Sustainable practices must be embedded within any new developments, upgrades and improvements to the public domain. Examples of this may include stormwater management, active movement corridors, reducing urban heat and utilising sustainable materials.

Given Rouse Hill has historically been quite a car-dependent area, encouraging a shift towards public transportation will be a major way to improve sustainability. This could be through increasing the proportion of trips by public transport (capitalising on the arrival of the Metro), providing additional walking and cycling links and reduced parking rates. Not only will this improve traffic flow on the road network, but this will also have substantial benefits for the environment by reducing emissions and improving air quality. Implementing a high quality and well-connected public domain that focuses on active transport opportunities will be pivotal to achieving this.

Green links will be enhanced throughout the Rouse Hill Strategic Centre, particularly north-south connections, providing high quality pedestrian and cycling connectivity within and surrounding the Centre. Road upgrades to Commercial Road and Withers Road will improve pedestrian and cyclist connectivity into and out of the commercial areas from the residential surrounds. New pedestrian bridges will also be provided to prioritise the pedestrian experience.

Increasing the urban tree canopy cover within the Rouse Hill Strategic Centre will be key to managing and mitigating urban heat. The urban tree canopy is a form of green infrastructure providing shade, which reduces ambient temperatures and mitigates urban heat. The urban heat island effect is where large amounts of hard and dark-coloured surfaces like roads and roofs cause localised warming.

This Precinct Plan envisages more trees along streets, in parks and other public spaces, as well as on privately owned land. Large areas of individual sites will be expected to accommodate soft landscaping and deep soil zones capable of supporting mature trees. It also anticipates that more efficient glazing, shading, water capture and storage and passive solar heating design will be incorporated into future developments to reduce use of electricity and water.

Public domain areas will be enhanced throughout the Strategic Centre and it is envisaged that high quality public plazas will be incorporated into future developments, particularly within the Northern Frame. Future developments will also be sympathetically designed to be compatible with the natural surroundings.

The Hills Development Control Plan will be the key mechanism to achieve this vision, along with the Public Domain Plan. While development controls and objectives relating to sustainable design are already being rolled out in Station Precincts and in association with site-specific planning proposals, this Plan recommends that these policy settings be applied more broadly across the Centre, in a consistent and streamlined manner.

Future DCP amendments will seek to achieve this by incorporating controls relating to the following:

• Green Star Ratings.

• NABERS energy and water ratings.

• Cool roofs, green walls and green roofs.

• Tree plantings in street verges.

• Photovoltaic facades and shading devices.

• Maximisation of natural light and cross ventilation.

• Reduced reliance on mechanical heating and cooling (through the use of eaves, awnings, good insulation and landscaping).

• Energy efficient light fittings and water fittings. This is further discussed in Section 4.5 of this Precinct Plan.