No "mindless grass" for Harold Park

by Gemma Battenbough, Architecture & Design

The highly sensitive Harold Park raceway site in Sydney’s suburb of Glebe is being sold and yesterday marked the start of public consultation for the development of planning controls.

There will be “enormous pressure” on the developers to include some public space, councillor Meridith Burgmann said, and that space needs to be “more thoughtful”.

“The public space can’t be more mindless grass with big trees,” Burgmann told Architecture & Design. “There is a lot of that down on the point and residents really need something a bit more interesting.”

One suggestion gaining momentum is to create a city farm similar to those in Perth and Yarra that could act as a tourist attraction for school children and utilize the existing light rail infrastructure.

The old tram sheds could be turned into pig pens and cow sheds and also house composting facilities, Burgmann said.

The site will be earmarked for high-density residential development, she said.

“It seems to me that the Harold Park site is so big that you could get quite a lot of urban consolidation without it being too offensive.”

Allowing dense development would give the City of Sydney licence to be “quite forceful” in its demands for public space. “I’m trying to make sure it is more thoughtful public space, rather than just yet another park,” Burgmann said.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said the first consultation meeting will give interested residents the opportunity to find out more about the site, the City's role and the planning process.

"The Harold Park site is of significant value to the community and includes important heritage items and links to surrounding parks," Moore said.

"The challenge ahead of us is to develop planning controls that balance opportunities for public benefit with the site owner's expectations of financial returns."

Planning principles including housing diversity, open space, sustainable transport, and heritage will be considered in preparing the controls."

Read the full article from Architecture & Design here.

Revealed: Sydney's Open secret

by Cameron Houston, Jason Dowling and Sherrill Nixon, The Sydney Morning Herald

"SYDNEY has launched a secret bid to pinch the jewel in Melbourne's major events calendar - the Australian Open.
Its audacious pitch for the Grand Slam tennis tournament includes a plan to build a multi-million-dollar stadium at Glebe Island when the harbour site - now filled with cars - is closed to stevedores.
But it will be up against stiff competition from overseas, with Shanghai, Dubai and Abu Dhabi all mounting campaigns to host a Grand Slam event when Melbourne's contract expires in 2016.
The Australian Open is one of several major events NSW hopes to steal as it reinvigorates its focus on tourism, after a series of damning reports found it was losing visitors and attractions to other states.
The State Government has poured millions of dollars into rebuilding "Brand Sydney" - including the formation of the $85 million Events NSW body - after it was blasted for becoming complacent after the Olympics.
Events NSW's chief executive, Geoff Parmenter, confirmed Sydney's interest in the event, which is worth more than $100 million to Victoria's economy. ..."

Read the full article from The Sydney Morning Herald here.