Open Space and Recreation Strategy
Consultation closes Friday 10 January 2025
How to get involved:
Review our Open Space & Recreation Strategy
Complete our Community Survey
Background
North Sydney features a network of well-maintained parks and recreational facilities that serve as vital community hubs. These spaces offer residents opportunities for leisure, structured sports, informal exercise and social interaction, significantly enhancing the community’s overall wellbeing. However, the local government area faces a considerable open space deficit, which is expected to increase as the population grows. With 89% of residents living in high and medium-density housing, ensuring an adequate supply of accessible public open spaces is essential.
In May-June 2024 Council launched its most extensive consultation to date: the ‘Have your say on North Sydney’s next ten years’ campaign. Through this engagement we asked the community what their priorities and aspirations were for open space and recreation opportunities in the LGA. Council has listened to the feedback and combined it with research to develop the draft Open Space and Recreation Strategy.
We now invite the community to continue sharing their thoughts as we plan to implement the strategy.
For more information on the research that underpins this strategy, please refer to the Open Space and Recreation Needs Study.
Key strategic directions
The Open Space and Recreation Strategy details how Council, the community and other stakeholders will work together over the next ten years to address the open space deficit and deliver the desired outcome of being an active community with space for everyone to exercise and enjoy the outdoors.
To achieve this outcome, we will focus on four key strategic directions:
Deliver additional space for sports and recreation
Maximise the capacity of our existing open spaces and recreational facilities
Provide new and upgraded facilities within existing public spaces to increase amenity, accessibility and diversity
Manage our open space and recreational facilities to ensure that they are well maintained and shared
The Open Space and Recreation Strategy is one of eight draft informing strategies that articulate the needs and priorities of North Sydney over the next ten years. Once adopted, these strategies will form the basis of our new 2025-2035 Community Strategic Plan (CSP).
Cost of delivering the Open Space and Infrastructure Strategy
Timing and delivery of new projects and initiatives will be dependent on availability of funding from a variety of sources, including but not limited to grants, developer contributions, and rates.
A detailed breakdown of the estimated cost and funding sources for all capital works identified within the informing strategies is provided in the appendix at the end of the Long-Term Financial Plan (LTFP).
To deliver all expanded services and new and upgraded infrastructure detailed in the Open Space and Recreation Strategy, the estimated additional funding required from rates income is detailed in the table below:
Council is currently engaging with the community on a proposed special rate variation that presents four potential rate increase options. Options 2a, 2b and 3 will all facilitate delivery of the new projects and initiatives detailed in this strategy.
Using option 2b as an example, the average percentage of rates income that will be spent on delivering the expanded services and new and upgraded infrastructure identified in the Open Space and Recreation Strategy over the full ten year period is 3.8%.
This means that for every $100 of rates income received, an average of $3.80 would be spent on expanding and improving open spaces and recreational opportunities in the LGA.
Have your say
As detailed above, the valuable information provided during the ‘Have your say on North Sydney’s next ten years’ campaign has shaped this strategy. We are now seeking your feedback on the draft Strategy to ensure that it appropriately reflects identified needs and aspirations.
Please provide your feedback by:
completing the submission form below, or
emailing or writing to us. Please include 'Draft Open Space and Recreation Strategy' in the subject line of all email or written feedback.
All submissions in their entirety are made publicly available in the Community Engagement Report. Personal identifying information, and content which is discriminatory, hateful or which may defame, offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate will be redacted.
If you need help accessing the Strategy or would like to view a hard copy version, please call 02 9936 8100.
