At the first NSW Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) function of the 2014 calendar year, NSW Planning & Infrastructure provided insights into its urban growth/revitalisation centres program and a healthy discussion took place around the future development growth requirements for Sydney.
At the same time, UDIA also launched its “Building Up” initiative which is an interactive tool that provides a method for determining the existing attractiveness or healthiness of a town centre. One of the purposes of the evaluation is to identify specific areas of a town centre which should be improved so that it becomes a more attractive place for people to work, visit or live, therefore stimulating the future growth potential of the centre.
Utilising a scoring system which is based around four categories being Transport and Access, Land Use, Urban Amenity and Renewal Potential the existing health check of the town centre can be determined. The town centre health ratings are as follows:
- Above 120 - Very Healthy Town Centre
- Between 100-120 - Good Healthy Town Centre
- Between 80-100 - Moderately Healthy Town Centre
- Between 60-80 - Unhealthy Town Centre
- Between 40-60 - Extremely Unhealthy Town Centre
UDIA NSW applied the centres health check to a number of existing town centres in Sydney ranging from regional centres to local neighbourhood centres, the results of which are represented in Table 1.
Table 1 – UDIA Health Check Results
|
No. |
Centre Name |
Health Check Score |
Health Check Rating |
|
1. |
Parramatta |
135 |
Very Healthy |
|
2. |
Burwood |
125 |
Very Healthy |
|
3. |
Hurstville |
115 |
Good Healthy |
|
4. |
Pyrmont |
115 |
Good Healthy |
|
5. |
Kogarah |
110 |
Good Healthy |
|
6. |
DeeWhy/Brookvale |
110 |
Good Healthy |
|
7. |
Seven Hills |
110 |
Good Healthy |
|
8. |
Hornby |
105 |
Good Healthy |
|
9. |
Epping |
100 |
Good Healthy |
|
10. |
Anzac Parade |
100 |
Good Healthy |
|
11. |
Strathfield |
95 |
Moderately Healthy |
|
12. |
Wentworth Point |
90 |
Moderately Healthy |
|
13. |
Redfern/Waterloo |
85 |
Moderately Healthy |
|
14. |
Green Square |
85 |
Moderately Healthy |
|
15. |
Granville |
85 |
Moderately Healthy |
|
16. |
Sydney Olympic Park |
80 |
Moderately Healthy |
|
17. |
Newington |
65 |
Unhealthy |
|
18. |
Rose Hill |
65 |
Unhealthy |
|
19. |
Padstow |
65 |
Unhealthy |
Through current and past work in Granville, PeopleTrans is aware of the difficulties in attracting significant developer interest in revitalising this centre and interestingly, Table 1 shows that Granville is one of the centres with a score at the lower end of the scale.
PeopleTrans has a range of experience in town centre land use and transport planning and is currently assisting with the transport planning elements to support future growth within Lindfield Town Centre by undertaking the Lindfield Town Centre Transport Model Network Study. Ku-ring-Gai Council have identified two prime development sites within the heart of the town centre, which if planned well, could transform Lindfield into a very attractive local centre.
Our quick health check of the existing Lindfield town centre resulted in a score of 105 (Good Healthy) so the goal of Ku-ring-Gai Council should be to aim for a future score of 120 or above to push Lindfield
For more information on UDIA’s building up initiative or to download the interactive toolkit please follow the links below:
https://www.udiansw.com.au/pages/campaigns_research
https://www.udiansw.com.au/uploads/docs/UDIA_NSW_Building_Up_26022014_1.pdf
