Booming City Needs Another Heart, Planners Told

''Big Sydney'' will be viable only if all levels of government commit to creating a twin city in the west with Parramatta as its CBD, a conference on population heard yesterday.

An expanding business district, major new public art gallery, radial light rail network and upgraded sporting facilities are just some of the infrastructure required to draw the pressure away from the existing CBD and towards the western population boom, the managing director of the industry group Tourism and Transport Forum, Christopher Brown, told the National Population Summit in Casula.

''We have to fundamentally change the way we think about our city; that every event has to be on the harbour, that every job has to be based in Martin Place, that every train line has to feed into Central, that every festival has to use the Opera House,'' he said.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, made a surprise appearance at the summit, hosted by the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, to spruik her government's sustainable population policy.

Western Sydney's population will more than double in the next four decades, as Sydney grows to 7 million by 2050.

Making Sydney and Parramatta the first places with twin-city status in Australia, like Minneapolis and Saint Paul in the US, could alleviate congestion, employment and housing problems, Mr Brown said.

''Parramatta has been considered the CBD of the west for so long but it has never really grown into the reality of that.''

New infrastructure to attract business and the ''managerial class'', Mr Brown said, should include a second branch of the Art Gallery of NSW, upgrades to the sporting stadiums at Parramatta and Blacktown, cycleways and a radial light rail network, and a strategic plan to attract more big business.

The local government area - the geographical centre of the city - had been the focus of government attention in the 1990s and early 2000s, said the lord mayor of Parramatta, Paul Garrard.

In this period, he said, public infrastructure such as the justice precinct, the NSW police headquarters and the Sydney Water Corporation had relocated there.

But, he said, the state government had ''walked away from Parramatta'', citing the missing Epping to Parramatta rail link as an example.

''Western Sydney already has a bigger population than the eastern side, and it could hold many more, but it only has half the infrastructure,'' he said.

The area is home to several key marginal seats in the coming federal election. The former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull also spoke at the conference, where he made the case for high density living outside the inner city when it can be matched with the right infrastructure.

''The inner east of Sydney is densely settled but not generally regarded as congested because its residents have access to reasonably reliable and frequent public transport,'' Mr Turnbull said. ''Density, if accompanied with the necessary infrastructure including public transport and public open space, in fact offers great amenity.''

The Tourism and Transport Forum has called for a new planning authority to manage growth in Parramatta, similar to the state-run Redfern Waterloo Authority. The Greater Parramatta Renewal Authority would devise a 40-year master plan for the region.

Latest NewsBooming City Needs Another Heart, Planners ToldMonday, 20 February 2017

Share This Article

Previous Articles