MAYORAL MINUTE NO 11/2024
NSW GOVERNMENT’S PLANS FOR KELLYVILLE-BELLA VISTA PRECINCT
23 JULY 2024
Dear Councillors,
Hills Shire residents have absorbed significant parts of Sydney’s housing growth for decades. This Council has never shirked its responsibility to deliver the housing and infrastructure to accommodate its growing population. It is important to us that children who grow up in The Hills Shire can remain in this wonderful region.
However, it is critical that development is supported by appropriate levels of infrastructure so that our area remains liveable into the future.
Two weeks ago, the NSW Government released its vision for the Transport Oriented Development (TOD) precincts around Kellyville and Bella Vista Metro stations. It provided a significant contrast to the Norwest Precinct Plan, which was approved by Council on the same day, after years of well thought out planning and studies.
Unfortunately, the NSW Government’s proposal for Kellyville and Bella Vista appears to have significant flaws. This is in addition to the extreme densities and the lack of infrastructure to support the proposed population.
In the weeks since the Government’s released the proposal, we have come to realise that their vision for Kellyville-Bella Vista will make it one of the most densely populated precincts in Australia, with population density more akin to Manhattan than Sydney’s north-west.
The precinct will have a population density of over 12,000 people per square kilometre which is comparable to Surry Hills, with parts of the precinct earmarked for densities over 28,000 people per square kilometre which would be comparable to Haymarket, Chippendale and Green Square.
I’m not convinced that our residents currently comprehend just how intense the NSW Government’s proposal for the corridor along Old Windsor Road will be.
However, the most worrying aspect of the NSW Government’s proposal is the completely inadequate plans for future infrastructure to support these significant population increases. The complete absence of any plan to widen the arterial roads, provide land and funding for a required number of schools and an adequate number of playing fields is extremely worrying to every resident I have spoken to. The $520 million on offer for the eight accelerated precincts is totally inadequate to be able to finance the State Infrastructure upgrades that would be required in these precincts.
The section of Old Windsor Road between Bella Vista and Kellyville Metro stations already resembles a car park for much of the day. Now the Government wants to add what could be an additional 20,000 cars to the mix with no plans for a much needed third lane between Windsor Road and Norwest Boulevard. Such an upgrade would cost tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. That stretch of the road hasn’t been upgraded since it was surrounded by farms and market gardens, and now the Government wants to plonk one of the most densely populated precincts in the state on either side of it.
Old Windsor Road services the north-west growth corridor, with an already planned growth roughly equivalent to the population of Canberra. This plan is going to make these roads extremely congested.
We need to learn the lessons from Green Square just to the south of Sydney’s CBD. Green Square was developed over many years. As land values continued to rise, it became impossible for the City of Sydney Council to provide the adequate parks and playing fields required for the booming Green Square population. This led to years of inertia until the Minns Government decided to chop Moore Park Golf Course in half so it could be converted into public parkland.
The problem with Kellyville-Bella Vista is that we don’t have a public golf course next door to take land from in 20 years’ time. The completely inadequate offering of playing fields and significant areas of public spaces needs to be addressed now, before it becomes exorbitantly expensive for future governments and councils to provide. We need the Government to transfer land for the Caddies Creek Stage Two expansion for the existing population now and at least two additional playing fields as well.
The Government’s plans only envisage one public primary school in the precinct for over 42,000 dwellings. We know that an area with this many homes would require at least three or four new primary schools and at least one or two new high schools. Hills Shire public schools are already the most overcrowded in NSW, followed by our neighbours in Blacktown.
Unfortunately, we’re already witnessing a system failure in North Western Sydney, where the Government hasn’t delivered it’s end of the bargain for residents still waiting for new schools, a long-promised hospital, and adequate funding for key roads and infrastructure projects.
Infrastructure that must be delivered for The Hills Shire if the NSW Government pushes ahead with this proposal includes:
Road and Traffic
• Widening of Old Windsor Road from Celebration Drive to Windsor Road to 3 lanes in each direction.
• Widening of Windsor Road from Memorial Avenue to Showground Road to 3 lanes in each direction.
• Upgrade signalised intersection at Norwest Boulevard and Lexington Drive.
• Upgrade signalised intersection at Windsor Road and Showground Road.
• Upgrade signalised intersection at Showground Road, Victoria Avenue and Green Road.
• Upgrade several signalised intersections along Old Windsor Road at Celebration Drive, Balmoral Road and Samantha Riley Drive which lead into station precincts.
• Improve walking and cycling links from Glenwood and Stanhope Gardens to the Metro Stations.
• Implement bus priority measures to ensure that residents and workers can catch buses to the Metro Stations.
Open Space
• Government to transfer land for the Caddies Creek Stage 2 expansion. This is an existing Government Commitment to accommodate planned growth from the Planned Precinct rezoning in 2017.
• 1-2 new playing fields (within The Hills Shire in addition to Caddies Creek Stage 2 expansion which will service existing planned growth).
Education
• Government to fast-track the construction of new primary school on the Developable Government land with at least two needed in the long-term.
• Government to commit toward the delivery of a new High School site, on existing Government Land at Sanctuary Drive (near the Caddies Creek Sporting Complex).
Community Facilities
• Government to provide additional contributions toward community centre floor space (such as the future Bella Vista Community Facility), which could include a new library.
Late last year Council resolved to support a community engagement campaign to assess the views of our residents regarding the rate of development and infrastructure in our Shire.
The report of that engagement will be released over the coming days. Early feedback from that survey says residents rated their three biggest infrastructure concerns as roads and traffic management, schools and education and public transport respectively. Perhaps if the NSW Government adequately invested in these areas, residents wouldn’t be so opposed to their plans for major development.
It was more pleasing to see our residents also make clear in the survey that they trusted their Council to plan for their local community rather than the NSW Government. Council is the closest level of Government to local residents, and The Hills Shire Council has an outstanding record of planning and delivering quality precincts and housing well supported by infrastructure.
The release of the TOD precincts by the NSW Government is clearly rushed as part of the NSW Government’s effort to tackle the housing crisis. However, this housing crisis will turn into a quality-of-life crisis if the Government’s vision for Kellyville-Bella Vista becomes a reality. It does not factor in up-to-date flood modelling; it does not factor in open space of 1.21 hectares of active space per 1000 people. It has no ecological assessment of the shadow impact on creek corridor vegetation and biodiversity. The traffic report is contrary to what Transport for NSW requires of Council for development applications and planning proposals. This plan is not based on the fundamental principles of ecologically sustainable development. It creates the wicked problems of the future, with massive infrastructure headaches for future generations to solve without the financial resources to do so.
The Government needs to slow down and plan these precincts properly. They won’t be accelerated anyway because we all know the construction industry lacks the capacity to deliver right now.
Our residents need to know what the NSW Government is proposing for our Shire. It’s our job to inform them and to fight for the outcomes and the infrastructure they deserve.
Accordingly, I move that:
MOTION
1. This Mayoral Minute be received.
2. Council conduct a high-visibility communications campaign alerting residents to the NSW Government’s plans for Kellyville-Bella Vista and encouraging them to make a submission on the Government’s plans before the deadline on Friday 9 August.
3. The Mayor and General Manager write to Blacktown City Council seeking a meeting between the two Councils to discuss the issues and the potential for joint advocacy on the precinct.
Dr Peter Gangemi MAYOR