| |
|
|
All Current and Past Media Releases
|
Media Release - Minister's Office Sydney: 18 February 2005 RESTORED PYRMONT RETURNED TO CITY OF SYDNEY Just over ten years on from being a run-down, largely abandoned industrial precinct, a renewed Pyrmont is a thriving community and today Minister for Infrastructure, Planning & Natural Resources, Craig Knowles, announced the urban success story would enter a new stage.
“I’m pleased to announce that, after a decade of regeneration and careful restoration in the hands of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, that the City of Sydney is set to resume planning powers and local management.
“The role of SHFA has been instrumental in the revitalisation of Pyrmont, and the area is now well positioned to be returned to the auspices of the City of Sydney,” said Mr Knowles.
“We are working with the City of Sydney to transfer planning responsibilities and public assets such as roads and parks.
“Parallel to this, I’m happy to say that negotiations are progressing well on the sale to the City of Sydney of the former Water Police site at Elizabeth Macarthur Bay.
“The City of Sydney has agreed that this 1.8 hectare parcel of land on the Harbour Foreshore will be transformed into public open space for local residents to enjoy.
“The process of ‘handing back’ Pyrmont to the City of Sydney gives us good cause to reflect on what has been achieved over the last decade under the stewardship of SHFA and the NSW Government.
“By the early 1980s just 3,000 people were living in Pyrmont – a tenth of the population from the turn of the century.
“By the mid-1990s Pyrmont was characterised by abandoned industrial and houses. Wharf Seven was a disused shed and the road outside a collection of railway tracks, old shipping containers and car wrecks. Pyrmont Point Park was a bitumen loading wharf, Giba Park was a cold store and there was almost no public access to the Pyrmont foreshore.
“It took massive intervention – funded by State and Commonwealth Governments and driven by a special Regional Environmental Plan – to take what for all the world looked like a hopeless case and turn it into one of the premier commercial and residential districts in the city.
“More than just a ‘Cinderella story’, Pyrmont is undeniably a success story.
“There are now nearly 14,000 people living in Pyrmont who enjoy a community with lots of open space, thriving commercial enterprises with around 22,000 jobs located in the area, and a mix of housing types.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP welcomed the return of planning controls to the City.
"Pyrmont has been one of the fastest growing communities in the city and I'm very pleased that planning controls are in the process of being returned to the Council."
The Lord Mayor Moore also said she looked forward to the handover of the Water Police site to the city of Sydney.
"It will be a terrific harbourside park for the local community and the people of Sydney."
Mr Knowles said that Pyrmont has gone from being the ‘forgotten end’ of Sydney, to a suburb which was the envy of many.
“The City of Sydney will continue that good work when the handover is complete, allowing SHFA to concentrate on managing other projects like East Darling Harbour which is only just starting on its road to recovery.”
© NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources
|