Giving outer-Sydney a facelift: some opportunities for urban development

If the cliché of "bursting at the seams" can be applied to a city, then Sydney would surely qualify. With resistance to high-rise apartment development in the inner urban and middle-ring suburbs growing and the supply of old industrial sites for redevelopment as residential apartments diminishing, the state government is about to release a vast tract of land to the south-west of the metropolitan area to accommodate a population growing at an average rate of 1000 a week. Bringelly will occupy rural land between the metropolitan area and Campbelltown.

Urban consolidation policy was introduced in the 1990s to slow the spread of urban development over the rural agricultural lands to Sydney's west, north west and south west. At the same time, a number of old industrial sites in the inner urban area became available for redevelopment as the industries closed or moved on. Developers were not slow to seize these new opportunities. Now, large tracts have been rebuilt to house people rather than industry and suburbs once categorised as low-income are being demographically upgraded. The city is transforming itself.

Transformation - The Inner Urban Area

Drive down Parramatta Road between the University of Technology and Glebe Point Road and you notice the rebuilding of the extensive Carlton brewery site and the new cluster of apartments near the old Grace Brothers complex, itself converted into a shopping centre and apartments some years ago. Diverge into Chippendale and see old warehouses converted into apartment blocks and newer developments scaled to match the 19^th-century streetscape.

Something similar has been going on for a number of years in Redfern, one of the city's less salubrious addresses. That sign of demographic change - the coffee shop - has started to appear in a shopping strip previously notable for its steel roller doors after trading hours.

The signs of urban rejuvenation await the visitor in the old industrial suburb of Alexandria where cafés and small business are now moving in to service the one-time working class area's new population of mainly so-called "new economy employees". Low-rise apartment development has substantially transformed part of Alexandria and it is now a "respectable" address.

Ultimo and parts of Darlinghurst were redeveloped some years ago, at the start of the inner-urban transformation.

Transformation - The Middle Ring

It is not only Sydney's older, inner ring of suburbs that is being transformed. Suburbs in the city's middle ring such as Hurstville, Chatswood, Strathfield and Parramatta and, to a less intense extent, places like Kogarah and Rockdale have seen an intensification of apartment development. Some of this has been the high-rise development which - with the spread of medium density into areas previously the province of low density single-family dwellings - has stimulated the public opposition that was a factor in the recent council elections in which independents and The Greens polled well.

Medium density in the middle suburban ring, complying with government plans, has clustered around railway stations where it has swollen population numbers and, to the annoyance of established locals, traffic congestion.

Transformation - The Centre

A further focus of apartment development has been Sydney CBD - the commercial heart of the metropolis that is now home to around 25 000.

The World Square development, which is reconstructing an entire city block, epitomises the mixed commercial/ residential development going on throughout the CBD. This has stimulated similar development on the CBD fringe in places such as Wooloomooloo, Darlinghurst, Chippendale and the Parramatta Road strip between Glebe Point Road and the University of Technology. There, established office blocks and old warehouses have been converted to apartments, with the old IBM building on the southern approach to the harbour bridge being perhaps the most conspicuous.

Westward Growth

Medium density development on the middle and inner urban rings has the capacity to absorb only so many. Now, the state government has found it necessary to release land at Bringelly and other outer urban locales to accommodate growing numbers. But, unlike the westward urban expansion of the 1950s to 1980s period, the proposed new developments may include design features to minimise water and energy consumption.

Living so far from the city and from facilities in these outer, car-dependent suburbs is anathema to those who thrive in the vital environments of the densely-packed inner suburbs. They criticise the large houses haphazardly sited on small blocks with no regard for climatic factors such as solar access; houses packed close together in defiance of the earlier ethic of suburban privacy. No community spirit, they say.

Yet those who live in them praise these houses as family-friendly even though the street might not be the focus of life as it is in the older, higher population suburbs. Any lack of community life, however, might not be a problem in an age when families are increasingly inwardly-focused. The home cinema, DVD movies and, to a lesser extent, the Internet has replaced the conviviality of the corner café.

Solving Problems, Opening Opportunities

Sydney's outward expansion has brought problems, yet the proposed developments, combined with enlightened policy, could provide opportunity.

Problem - The Loss Of Agricultural Land

The growth of urban-fringe development consumes land that once produced food and other agricultural products for the city.

Sydney's rural fringe supplies the city with its fresh vegetables and fruit as well as poultry, cut flowers and the seedlings urban residents buy in nurseries. Sydney is fortunate that its fresh food does not travel far from market garden to table. Fresh food is nutritious food and the "local food" ethic has started to invade the city just as it has in other cities - the growing number of urban farmers markets is a sign of this.

Further loss of urban fringe agricultural land to residential and industrial development could thwart the developing market for local foods and is likely to result in higher food prices as fresh food is imported from places more distant.

A solution would be to take a new approach to land releases for residential development by assessing the agricultural potential of land. That of high potential could be preserved for farming by new zoning laws. Land of low agricultural potential could be released for development.

Problem - Poor Environmental Performance

The energy and water conservation performance in newer housing tracts leaves a lot to be desired. This is also true of some recent apartment development, however the most recent developments exhibit architect sensitivity to energy performance. Some feature moveable sunshades to cool the apartment and reduce the use of air conditioners. The seven-level Kogarah Town Square apartment/mixed use development shows a new direction in medium density design. It features passive solar design, the generation of electricity from a roof consisting of photovoltaic panels (energy is sold to the grid as part of a "green power" scheme), water conservation, a public plaza lined with cafés and other small business and a redesigned streetscape with shops, outdoor seating and deciduous trees for summer cooling and winter sun access.

Energy performance has been addressed by the NSW Sustainable Energy Development Authority which some years ago inaugurated a scheme by which local government could legislate energy efficiency into their development policies. Earlier this year the NSW government promised to make such regulations universal.

One area of energy performance that is in urgent need of address is how to reduce the use of private transport in new, urban fringe developments.

Problem - Lack Of "Third Place" Amenity

The concept of the "third place" was developed by US academic and sociologist, Ray Oldenburg, in his book "The Great Good Place" (1989; reprinted 1999; Marlow and Company, New York). It is something people from Europe are familiar with but in which Australian and US town planners have been derelict.

According to Oldenburg, the home is the "first place" and the workplace the "second place". Third places are locations of informal social interaction. He identifies the type of places in the subtitle of his book as "cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other hangouts at the heart of a community" - all of these being critical to a sense of community and place. Perhaps some public parks and community food gardens could be added to Oldenburg's list.

Third places must be cheap to visit and welcome their informal social role. They draw a diverse population, foster contact, support a local economy, are safe, preferably accessible on foot and by public transport, support small scale entrepreneurship, are locally owned and generate a community identity.

Successful streetscapes feature such establishments and attract crowds of people; think of Glebe Point Road and King Street, Newtown, Sydney; the West End coffee strip in Brisbane; Fitzroy in Melbourne. In the US, Oldenburg's ideas have created such interest that small businesses have been established with "third place" missions.

Third places are vital and lively. The challenge for planners and developers is to read Oldenburg's book and work out ways of implementing the ideas in the new housing developments.

An Outer Urban Future

One advantage of the rejuvenated, medium density inner urban areas is that they pack sufficient people into a limited area to support new, small businesses. This not only creates livelihoods and employment, it stimulates local economies and makes the third place concept of Oldenburg more likely. This may not be so in the planned urban fringe developments unless the government stipulates medium density as part of the schemes.

We need the urban fringe developments to be based in future on land capability assessments that set aside agriculturally productive land through new zoning laws, then that area of the metropolis could take on the appearance of villages separated by tracts of farm and bushland. This would not only ensure that the city continues to source its fresh food locally; it would make possible setting aside remnant bushland for the conservation of a biodiversity now scarce in the region and open up natural areas as public open space.