Draft Ward Street Precinct Masterplan - Stage 1

The Ward Street Precinct is a mix of commercial, mixed use and residential developments at the northern end of the North Sydney CBD.

The draft Masterplan aims to significantly improve the public domain offering of the North Sydney CBD and carefully plan for the urban renewal of the centre.

There are a number of catalysts for the draft Masterplan:

• The return of the Ward Street car park to Council control in 2020
• The planned Victoria Cross Metro Station
• Strong private development interest
• The opportunity to set the direction for contemporary best practice planning
• The activation of the North Sydney Centre

Stage 1 of draft Masterplan was placed on public exhibition between 26 January and 10 March 2017.

A total of 30 submissions were received, raising a variety of issues. More than half ofthese complimented Council on its initiative and supported the significant contribution theproject is seeking to make to the public domain. The variety of issues raised generally fell into the following categories:

• Residential amenity impacts including solar access, views, wind and acoustic privacy
• East Walker Street opportunity site concerns
• Traffic and parking
• Scale and density of building envelopes
• Heritage concerns
• Public space amenity impacts
• Security and antisocial behaviour
• Rationale behind selection of opportunity sites
• Financial feasibility
• Commercial amenity impacts
• Interaction with the Capacity and Land Use study
• Concerns with existing controls of North Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2013.

Following the exhibition at its meeting on 1 May 2017, Council resolved to further refine the draft Ward Street Precinct Masterplan as follows:

1. THAT Council note the issues raised by the community as part of the exhibition of the draft Ward Street Precinct Masterplan.

2. THAT Council resolve to take steps toward the finalisation of the draft Masterplan through further specialist input and design development that responds to community, industry and landowner feedback, according to the following:

• The content and strategic direction identified in the draft North District Plan inform the refinement of the Masterplan.
• The scope of opportunity sites be expanded to ensure opportunities are investigated on all sites within the Precinct.
• The scope of design investigation include the potential for a greater variety of site amalgamation options for opportunity sites.
• The relationship of the Ward Street Masterplan and the Capacity and Land Use Study be clarified, with the development potential of all sites within the Masterplan area identified.
• The East Walker Street opportunity site be detached from the Ward Street Precinct Masterplan project and separately pursued by Council staff.
• The boundary of the North Sydney Centre, as defined in NSLEP 2013, be reviewed for potential expansion to the east.

3. THAT a final draft Masterplan be prepared and reported to Council for the purposes of exhibition.

In response to the above resolution, Council’s City Strategy Division undertook an open tender process calling for a suitable design and financial consultant team to contribute to further refining the Stage 1 work completed. Hassell was the successful tenderer with Stage 2 Masterplan project works having commenced February 2018.

Visit Stage 2 of the Masterplan at [add related project]

For more information regarding the masterplan contact Jennifer Lawley, Strategic Planning Department on 9936 8100.