Community Engagement Strategies: Central Park

Table of Content

Table of Content

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES


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Contents

Table of Content ................................................... 2

A. The Introduction ............................................. 3

B. The Community Engagement Strategies ........ 3

C. The Project Overview ...................................... 4

D. The Key Stakeholders ..................................... 4

E. The Voice ......................................................... 6

F. The Principles .................................................. 7

G. Strategies & Programs .................................... 8

H. Recommendations .......................................... 9

References ............................................................ 9


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A. The Introduction

The community engagement plan is an essential practice both in urban

planning industry and in planning framework of New South Wales. There

are legal requirements under the Environmental Planning and Assessment

Act 1979 underpinning the public participation adjacent to every planning

and environmental process in local and state level. The implementation of

the regulation become inevitable, especially in the Central Park

development as the State Significant Development that lead to large-scale

impacts to urban entities in Sydney and NSW such as housing, transport,

economy, heritage, public amenities, neighbourhood characteristic,

landscape and carbon footprint. The unique vision of Central Park titled

“CREATION THROUGH COLLABORATION” is perfectly reflecting the

necessity and awareness of Frazier Property to encourage community

engagement strategies. The commitment to develop mutual

understanding and harmony during the entire process of planning,

construction and further development inter-stakeholder will improve the

positive contributions to building up an authentic and high-quality

sustainable urban development as a good example of the future

developments not only in Sydney as Metropolitan Area but across

Australian urban areas.

B. The Community Engagement Strategies

There are several objectives to manifest the vision of “CREATION

THROUGH COLLABORATION” from the Central Park development through

this community engagement strategy. The intentions of the strategy are:

Defining key stakeholders of the Central Park plan

Notifying the stakeholders regarding the Central Park

development in sustainable, effective and efficient ways

• Designing unique public participation platforms for

stakeholders groups to improve the involvement

• Developing mutual consideration regarding the potential of

changes towards the urban renewal projects

The mandatory regulation under Environmental Planning and Assessment

Act 1979 for public participation are:

• s33C Public access to environmental planning

instruments and related document

• s79 Public participation—designated development

• s89F Public participation in State significant

development

• s115Z Environmental assessment and public

consultation in State significant infrastructure

Furthermore, the importance goals of the community engagement plan for

the Central Park development obtain from A Guide for Engaging

Communities in Environmental Planning and Decision Making (Department

of Environment and Conservation NSW 2006) are:

1. Increased Public Expectation

2. Reduced Conflict

3. Risk Management and Technical Competence

4. Good governance


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C. The Project Overview

The Central Park project is located in Chippendale NSW under the City of

Sydney LGA and strategically taking place in the hub of Sydney’s South CBD

corridor nearby the Sydney Central Railway Station. This mega urban

transformation project develops in the former of 150 years

Carlton and United Brewery on Broadway Street. The

ownership including development and management of the

project belongs to the Frasers Property Australia. The previous

owners, the Australand and Fosters, commence the actual

project stages in 2003 to 2007. Since 2007, Frasers Property

Australia takes over the project and continues the

development approval process to the start-up of construction.

The NSW government is the consent authorities after declared

the site as State Significant Site under the part 3A of

Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 from City of

Sydney Council.

The value of the 5.8-hectare urban renewal project is estimated

$600 million including residential, commercial, retail, heritage,

parks and street. The Frazier Property commits to provide one-third of the

development of the site to serve the public interest. The significant budget

also addresses to build a sophisticated and integrated design of urban

architecture, landscape and green technologies to the site within a

collaboration of local and international experts such as architects,

botanists, artists and engineers.

This Central Park projects will be the next Sydney’s landmark after the

Opera House, Sydney Eye Tower and Harbour Bridge. These mega projects

are expected to be a significant generator for NSW economy in the next

ten years by creating approximately 1,200 jobs during the construction,

2,500 prospective occupants in residential and 5,400 employments for

retail and commercial. The development of Central Park considers the

importance of public access to planning, design and implementation

phases by providing platforms for Chippendale local community

engagement and the preservation of the Heritage listed sites.

D. The Key Stakeholders

The identification of relevant stakeholders’ group is critical to reducing the

tension that likely to occur in the development negotiation process and

maximise the benefits for all parties due to the proportional of each

interested parties. The recognition of the stakeholders is also importance

to design proper strategies to communicate eFfectively the vision and the

objectives of this urban renewal projects and prepares the contingency

plan base on the characteristic of the stakeholders.

The Central Park Site


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The definition of stakeholders in use to define the stakeholders derives

from the Planning and Urban Design Standards published by American

Planning Association (2006):

“A stakeholder is defined as someone with a ’stake’ or interest, in the

issues being addressed. In practice, this means anyone could be a

stakeholder because a resident, taxpayer and concerned citizen could all

have an interest”

The publication also helps to classify four types of stakeholder base on

Sectors of Society, Interest Groups, Agencies and Elected Officials within

four reasons for selecting the stakeholders; Jurisdiction, Information,

Conflict and Networks. By adapting the concept then the lists of the

relevant stakeholders to Central Park projects describe as follows:

No Stakeholder Including

1 Government Agencies

NSW Department of Planning & Environment

Transport for NSW

Roads and Maritime Services

2 City of Sydney Council Staff

Lord Mayor

Corporate, Finance, Properties and Tenders Committee

Cultural and Community Committee

Environment Committee,

Local Pedestrian, Cycling and Traffic Calming Committee

Planning and Development Committee

No Stakeholder Including

3 City of Sydney Councillors

Nine Councillors

4 Joint Committees

The Central Sydney Planning Committee

The Central Sydney Traffic & Transport Committee

5

Chippendale Residents and Property Landlords

4,047 residents ( ABS 2011 Usual residents)

2,218 dwellings (ABS 2011)

6 Local Trade & Industry Groups

The Chippendale Creative Precinct (CCP)

7 Society Organisations & Groups

Chippendale Residents Interest Group

East Chippendale Community Group

Friends of Carlton United Site (FoCUS)

8 Schools & Education Sector

The University of Technology Sydney (City Campus Blackfriars)

The University of Notre Dame Australia (Broadway Campus)

Curtin University Sydney

9 Visitors Tourists

Shoppers

10 Regional and Local Media Groups

Radio

Newspaper

TV

Online Media


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E. The Voice

All the group of stakeholders in the previous section have particular

concerns regarding the Central Park project. These concerns need to

capture and deliver delicately through effective and efficient strategies.

The concerns below derive from wide-range resources that assume to be

relevant to the project. The resources that use in this community

engagement strategies are City of Sydney local environment plan (LEP) and

Development Control Plan (DCP), official data from related agencies, study

cases, newspaper, online media and regular observation of the area.

By examining, the potential issues address by the stakeholders, the Central

Park developer will be able to consider positives and negatives from the

aspects that will occur during the planning and implementation process.

This is a very crucial element of decision-making process since the inability

to deal with the fundamental interest of the stakeholders will result in

inefficiency of time, costs, and human resources.

No Stakeholder Potential Concerns


The sufficient and commitment plans in accommodating State regulations on infrastructure, environment, transport, housing, employment, levy and voluntary planning agreement

The action plans for short-term, mid-term and long-term



The Central Park Masterplan should be reflected the integration and suitability to the local planning instruments.

The Central Park Masterplan should consider public access to the area

The Central Park Masterplan should consider sharing space and view to the surrounding area

The sufficient and commitment plans in accommodating Council regulations on public services and voluntary planning agreement

The Central Park Masterplan should consider transparency to public domain

Minimising local community disadvantages

The action plans for short-term, mid-term and long-term


4 Joint Committees

5

Chippendale Residents and Property Owners

Heritage sites

Public access/ Privatization

Sharing view

Solar Access

Parking

Excessive development

Noise

Maintain local characteristics

Affordable Housing

Green Open Spaces

The Density

Giving incentive to the property owners who experience direct impact from the construction

Accommodating, maintaining and preserving local artists

Minimising local community disadvantages

6 Community Organisations & Groups


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7 Local Business & Industry Groups

Accommodating surrounded local business by creating Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) for sustainable and fair-trading especially for small business

A regular space of local business exhibitions

8 Schools & Education Providers

Affordable students housing

The open opportunities for educational exhibitions and learning purposes

9 Visitors

Comfortability

Sanitary

Accessibility

Design

Security

10 Regional and Local Media Groups

Open access of information to the public domain

F. The Principles

The fundamental principles of this community engagement scheme are

Sustainable, Feasible and Fair. These three values seem to be relevant to

achieve the aims of the Central Park development.

Sustainable is inevitable since it is a part of the Central Park identity as a

sustainable urban development project. The sustainability should not only

apply to technological features but altogether with public participation.

The idea of sustainability in community engagement above is an

adaptation from the book of Community and Sustainable Development:

Participation in the Future by Diane Warburton (2009). This publication

also suggests that the involvement of community participation is always

considerable to advance outcomes and to avoid “confusion” and

“misunderstanding” that most likely result in prolonged deadlock in

planning and implementation process.

Feasible by definition of Meriam Webster dictionary is “possible to do” and

this is an important value to the entire plan. The feasibility of public

participation point of view is creating strategies that viable to deliver due

to the characteristics of the identified stakeholders as well as the capability

of the resources of the project host. Also, feasibility should apply in

practical and solution terms according to the paper titled Engaging

Queenslanders: Community Engagement in the Business of Government

(2005).

Fair is important to develop mutual understanding in policy making

especially for today business-driven sector as stated by Anne Coote, Head

of Social Policy at the New Economics Foundation cited in the publication

of “Below the Radar in a Big Society? Reflections on community

engagement, empowerment and social action in a changing policy context”

(Mcabe, 2010).

Furthermore, the practical principles of public participation plans are

deriving from the spectrum of The International Association for Public

Participation (IAP2). This International Recognition of participatory

planning is assisting to indicate the objectives of this plan as to Inform,

Consult, Involve and Collaborate (The International Association for Public

Participation: Foundations of Public Participation 2014).


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The spectrum of The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)

G. Strategies & Programs

No Stakeholder Strategy Programs


Maintaining regular consultation and inspection

Managing a Preface Presentation of the development

Managing frequent Inter-authorities consultations

Focused Group Discussion

Regular Site Inspection



4 Joint Committees

5 Chippendale Residents and Property Owners

Continuing to inform the development process

Encouraging public engagement to the plan

Developing trust-building and partnership

Arranging business meetings

Establishing Community Exhibitions

Focused Group Discussion

Online submission

Advertising

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

Recreational visitation to the site for stakeholder number 5 to 10

6 Community Organisations & Groups

7 Local Business & Industry Groups

8 Schools & Education Providers

9 Visitors

10 Regional and Local Media groups


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H. Recommendations

There are recommendations for the plan, which are divided to the timeline

of the plan as short-term, mid-term and long-term. All the

recommendations are likely to be integrated into the vision of the Central

Park project, objectives and social planning principles that relevant to

adopt to this community engagement plan. The lists of the

recommendation are mentioned as follows below;

Short-term recommendations are

1. Starting to advertise the plan

2. Identifying and verifying key stakeholders and individuals

3. Creating multi-communication platforms

4. Maintaining collaboration to the entire stakeholders

Mid-term recommendations are

1. Developing trust-building to key stakeholders and individuals

2. Organising regular consultation

3. Organising creative exhibition and presentation


Long-term recommendations are

1. Sustaining trust-building key stakeholders and individuals

2. Sustaining regular consultation, exhibition and presentation


References

American Planning Association 2006, “Planning and Urban Design Standards”, John Wiley & Sons, p.49, viewed

12 November 2015,

<https://books.google.com.au/books?id=3spWR8wdGaQC&q=stakeholder#v=snippet&q=st

akeholder&f=false>

City of Sydney 2014, “Central Park Sydney”, Major Developments, viewed 12 November 2015,

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision/major-developments/central-park

Department of Environment and Conservation NSW 2006, A Guide for Engaging Communities in Environmental

Planning and Decision Making, viewed 12 November 2015,

<http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/communities/2006288-Engaging-

Communities.pdf >.

Frasers Property 2013, “CREATION THROUGH COLLABORATION”, Central Park Sydney, viewed 12 November

2015, <http://www.centralparksydney.com/explore/the-visionaries>

Mcabe, A. 2010, “Below the Radar in a Big Society? Reflections on community engagement, empowerment and

social action in a changing policy context”, Third Sector Research Centre, , viewed 12

November 2015, <

http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/787/1/WP51_BTR_in_a_Big_Society_McCabe_Dec_2010.pdf>

New South Wales Government 2015, Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 No 203, NSW Legislation,

viewed 11 October 2015,

<http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/scanview/inforce/s/1/?TITLE=%22Environmental%20Pl

anning%20and%20Assessment%20Act%201979%20No%20203%22&nohits=y>.

Profile.id.com.au 2015, “Chippendale Community Profile”, viewed 12 November 2015, <

http://profile.id.com.au/sydney/about?WebID=130>

Queensland Department of Communities 2005, “Engaging Queenslanders: Community engagement in the

business of government”, State of Queensland, viewed 12 November 2015, <

https://www.qld.gov.au/web/community-engagement/guides-

factsheets/documents/engaging-queenslanders-business-gov.pdf>

The International Association for Public Participation 2014, Foundations of Public Participation, viewed 12

November 2015, <https://www.iap2.org.au/documents/item/83>

Warburton, D. 2009, “Community and Sustainable Development: Participation in the Future”, Routledge,

viewed 12 November 2015,

<https://books.google.com.au/books?id=_Vv7AQAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s>

Documents

Community Engagement Strategies: Central Park