Parramatta North Potential State Significant Site

Parramatta North encompasses a 42-hectare urban renewal initiative primarily on government-owned land adjacent to the Westmead Health and Innovation District. Urban Growth provided a rezoning proposal for government-owned land at Parramatta North. This has now been reviewed and an amendment to the Parramatta Local Environmental Plan 2011 was approved in 2015.

Key features include:

• 20,000 square metres of floor space for adaptive reuse of heritage items
• a village centre of around 4,000 square metres of floor space
• 3,000 homes close to Parramatta CBD, transport, parklands and local services.

The approved proposal takes into consideration issues raised by the community and a number of changes have been made in response. Key changes include:

• reduction in the heights of proposed buildings close to heritage items in the Cumberland sub precinct, including the removal of a proposed 16 storey building next to the Parramatta Gaol
• reduction in the height of a proposed building at the northern most part of the site fronting O’Connell Street from 30 storeys to 20 storeys
• reduction in the height of buildings in the block bounded by Fleet, Albert, O’Connell and Fennell streets from a maximum of 30 storeys to a maximum of 20 storeys overall, and six storeys opposite the North Parramatta Conservation Area
• increase in the area of the land to be zoned as public recreation to more than 5 hectares, including protection of the grey-headed flying fox colony
• introduction of a design excellence clause into the Parramatta Local Environmental Plan so that future buildings positively contribute to the architectural quality of Parramatta and are appropriate for the local area
• more planning and consultation for the Sports and Leisure sub-precinct to resolve issues such as potential land use conflict and noise prior to any rezoning approval for the area
• more planning and consultation for the NSW Linen Service land to resolve issues such as potential heritage and residential amenity impacts, prior to any rezoning approval for the area.

The rezoning follows the Minster for Planning’s decision to consider land within the Parramatta North Urban Renewal Area as a potential State Significant Site on 21 July 2014.

The Parramatta North Urban Renewal Area Assessment Report includes further details of the changes.

Community consultation

Community feedback played an important part in helping to review and amend the proposal for North Parramatta. The proposal prepared by UrbanGrowth NSW was publicly exhibited in late 2014.

Community consultation included:

• 1,725 property owners notified by mail
• 3,750 residences and businesses letterbox dropped in the surrounding area
• two UrbanGrowth NSW community drop-in sessions held.

The Heritage Council of NSW was also consulted for specialist heritage advice. During the exhibition period, 166 submissions were received.

Key issues raised in the submissions related to:

• heritage
• building height and density
• parking
• consultation
• community facilities, services and amenities.

On 1 July 2020, Property and Development NSW became responsible for future development of Parramatta North. For further information on its precinct development work please visit Parramatta North.