Item 9.3 - Attachment 1

Detailed Report

 

 

Background

 

Council at its meeting of 25 June 2012 considered a Notice of Motion regarding the purchase of properties bounded by Balmoral, Kleins and Beamish Roads, Northmead for the provision of car parking and resolved:

 

That Council prepare a report to consider including in the Section 94A Work Programme the purchase of properties bounded by Balmoral, Kleins and Beamish Roads, Northmead to facilitate the provision of approximately 90 public car parking spaces, such report to be submitted to the Council Meeting to be held on 23 July 2012.

 

Locality

 

The area bound by Balmoral, Kleins and Beamish Roads, Northmead is located within an R2 Low Density Residential Zone and comprises existing detached dwelling houses. Directly to the north of this block is an existing neighbourhood shopping centre and recent town house developments on the northern side of Balmoral Road. To the south of the block is an existing park known as Willsford Homes Playground and low density dwelling houses.

 

Directly to the east, on the opposite side of Kleins Road, is an existing part B4 Mixed Use Zone and part IN1 General Industrial Zone. Much of the B4 Mixed Use land has been redeveloped or is the subject of development approvals. The remaining industrial land and buildings are reaching the end of their economic life. Council has received planning proposals from land owners of this Industrial land as detailed under the heading Local Parking Demand & Traffic Issues.

 

 

Planning proposals received
 

 

 
 
Land subject to Planning Proposals          

 
 
Land bound by Balmoral/Beamish/Kleins Roads

 

Figure 1: Locality Plan

 

 

 

Development Contributions

 

Council collects development contributions from persons undertaking new development. These funds are pooled together to be spent on capital infrastructure that Council would normally be expected to provide to support the local population. The works items delivered are identified in a works program adopted by Council as part of the Development Contributions Plan. None of the current or former work plans identified land acquisition/ car parking provision in Northmead.

 

Any change to the works program would need to be placed on public exhibition and adopted by Council. Council would also need to decide if this was a one off amendment or part of a comprehensive review of the works program. If this project was added to the work program, other projects may need to be removed as the current works program is based upon the estimated cost of the works equalling the estimated income from development contributions.

 

It is noted that contributions collected are not required to be spent in the same area in which they were collected. For example a new development in Winston Hills may pay development contributions however those funds may contribute toward the provision of a new playground in say Guildford.

 

The reason for this is to enable contributions projects to be delivered within a reasonable time. For example if contributions were only spent in the area in which they were collected it would be necessary to wait for enough developments to be approved and commence to have sufficient funds to deliver any infrastructure projects. By pooling the contributions this enables the funds to be collected more quickly and delivered to the community within a reasonable time, and also enable project delivery to be spread across the LGA in accordance with the adopted work program.

 

Council currently has two s94A Development Contributions Plans that came into effect in December 2007 and April 2008. These plans superseded the Comprehensive Parramatta S94 Development Contributions Plan. While most of the funds collected under the former plan have been spent or transferred into the new plans, there are some monies that had been identified for traffic projects in specific areas that still remain unspent. These include funds collected for local area traffic works in Epping, Dundas, Harris Park and Rosehill with approximately $1.5 million available.

 

The reason the funds have not been spent may include one or all of the following: the identified traffic projects have already been completed, the identified traffic projects are no longer required; or the contribution plan collected more money than was required to deliver the traffic projects. This is detailed further under the heading Use of S94 funds collected under superseded plans.

 

Inclusion in the Development Contributions Works Program

 

The existing Parramatta Section 94A Development Contribution Plan that applies to Northmead includes a work program with a value of approximately $20 million and collects approximately $4 - $5 million annually. The value of the 90 space car parking (including land acquisition) is in the order of $3.2 to $3.7 million as detailed further under the heading Preliminary Cost Estimate.

 

While this could be added to the contribution plan it would represent 16-19% of the total works program value, and could only be delivered at the expense of other projects such as open space, traffic projects and the like. Furthermore, the proposed car park would only serve a small part of the community, many being employees that may not reside within the Parramatta Local Government Area (LGA) and for which employee parking should be provided on site by the hospital and/or the surrounding industrial/commercial premises.

 

Use of S94 funds collected under superseded plans

 

As previously detailed Council has approximately $1.5 million in unspent development contributions that had been collected for local area traffic works in Epping, Dundas, Harris Park and Rosehill under a superseded contribution plan. The breakdown of the available funds is as follows:

 

Contribution Plan

Works Item /Description

Approximate Funds available (as at March 2012 quarter)

Funds committed to be spent in 2012/2013 budget

Comprehensive S94 Development Contributions Plan

Epping Commercial Centre Local Area Traffic Management Works

$10,000

Nil

Epping Local Area Local Area Traffic Management Works

$410,000

Nil

Dundas Local Area Traffic Management Works

$370,000

Nil

Harris Park / Rosehill Local Area Traffic Management Works

$667,000

Nil

Additional traffic calming works in neighbourhood centres

$17,000

Nil

TOTAL

 $1,474,000

 

Possible options for the use of these funds are detailed below and would be subject to further discussions with Councillors:

 

1.   Spend the money on traffic works in the areas originally identified i.e. Epping, Dundas, Rosehill/Harris Park.

 

2.   Utilise the available funds toward the provision of land acquisition/car parking at Northmead. While there are insufficient funds to deliver the desired 90 spaces, the parking area could be reduced in size or the remaining shortfall provided from an alternate funding source such as general revenue.

 

3.   Utilise the available funds toward a range of traffic projects across the Parramatta LGA. A suggested list of priority projects that could be chosen from are detailed below.

 

Suburb

Suggested traffic project

Estimated cost*

Northmead

Redbank Road and Kleins Road – Widen road to allow an additional northbound lane at one of the intersections as detailed at Attachment 3.

$2.25 million

Westmead

Bridge Road – Widen by one lane southbound at the same time that Railcorp reconstructs the bridge

$500,000

Granville

Good Street/Cowper Street – Convert roundabout to traffic signals to stop queuing back into Parramatta Road intersection

$400,000

Telopea

Adderton Road/Manson Street – Roundabout

$180,000

Ermington

Spurway Street, between Victoria Road and Jackson Street – Median island in Spurway Street at Betty Cuthbert Avenue and roundabout at Jackson Street to facilitate alternative access to shops. This is stage 1, the second stage involves a short left turn lane into Victoria Road.

$100,000 (Stage 1 only)

Guildford

Guildford Road at Woodville Road – widening to allow  right turn lanes and right turn phases

$700,000

Granville

Cowper Street – extend west end through to Parramatta Road

$2 million

* Costs are preliminary only and are subject to final design including further detail regarding potential land acquisition costs and relocation of services where necessary.

 

4.   That Councillors table other suggested traffic improvements across the LGA to be investigated by staff with regard to suitability, preliminary costing and the like.

 

5.   Roll over the funds into the current s94A contributions plan to assist in the delivery of traffic projects identified in the existing works program as detailed at Attachment 2.

 

It is noted that the funds were originally collected for traffic work, not for car parking and while the funds can be reasonably substituted for another use, the ultimate use of the funds should be as closely aligned to their original intended purpose (i.e. traffic projects).

 

Preliminary Cost Estimate

Council officers have identified preliminary costs associated with land acquisition and construction of a 90 space car park in the area bound by Balmoral, Beamish and Kleins Road. Based on the allotment sizes, which are approximately between 550m² to 690m² each, Council would be required to purchase 4 properties having an approximate area of 2,470m² (1 & 3 Beamish and 2 & 4 Balmoral Streets) to provide approximately 80 car parking spaces or 5 properties to provide for 90 – 100 spaces.

 

All existing properties at the eastern end of Beamish and Balmoral Streets are improved with existing dwelling houses and ancillary structures. Having regard to recent sales in the area a conservative estimate of the value is $500,000 per property. However, such valuations do not take into account the exact value of the improvements to the site, and are made on the assumption that the properties are available to the market for purchase. It is noted that while one property is in the ownership of the NSW Housing Corporation, the majority of these parcels are in private ownership.

 

Preliminary estimates suggest that demolition of the existing structures and construction of a 90 space car park would be approximately $1.2 million however, this would be subject to further design detail and identification of any site specific constraints. Accordingly a conservative estimate for the land acquisition, demolition and construction would be in the order of between $3.2 million (4 properties/80 spaces) and $3.7 million (5 properties/100 spaces).

 

It is noted that this cost estimate is purely related to the provision of the car parking alone and would not ameliorate existing/future traffic problems in the area. Any upgrades to the road network including intersection upgrades would be in addition to this and is detailed further below under the heading Local Parking Demand & Traffic Issues.

 

Land Zoning & Classification

 

Land south of Balmoral Road and west of Kleins Road is zoned R2 Low Density Residential. Stand alone car parking (i.e. car parking that is not ancillary to another use) is prohibited within the R2 zone. Accordingly, should Council pursue the provision of car parking in the R2 zone, this would require the preparation of a planning proposal to either: a) nominate car parking as being an additional permitted use on nominated land parcels to be included in Schedule 1 of the Parramatta LEP 2011; or b) change the zoning.

 

Furthermore, as the land will be designated for a public purpose it will need to be classified as operational land upon purchase.

 

Figure 2: Zoning Map Extract

 

Local Parking Demand & Traffic Issues

 

Long stay parking demand in the local area is attributed to employee parking of the nearby shops and industrial land uses/depot as well as overflow parking from Westmead Hospital. Short term parking for patrons of local shops is also required. Recent residential development in Balmoral and Redbank Roads has also increased traffic flows and on-street parking demand in the local area.

 

Council has received two planning proposals from land owners within the Industrial zone between Windsor Road and Kleins Road as shown in yellow in Figure 1. The planning proposal for land at 2 Windsor Road and 2-6 Boundary Road seeks that certain retail uses be permitted on the site. The planning proposal for 1B Kleins Road and 12 Boundary Road seeks the rezoning of the land to IN2 Light Industrial to permit a range of additional uses including office premises, serviced apartments and bulky goods. The proposal also seeks additional density to be permitted on the site.

 

Preliminary investigations into these planning proposals indicate that they will result in significant additional traffic generation and will require intersection upgrades at Kleins and Briens Road including a new left turning bay exiting from Kleins Road. To enable this, some of the existing angle parking adjacent to the shops will need to be removed and replaced with parallel parking with an estimated loss of 10 parking spaces as detailed in the sketch at Attachment 3.

 

The suggested 90 spaces included in the Council resolution would be substantially more than is required to support the local shops. However, this would be substantially less than required to meet the demand from employees in the area/hospital overflow. If Council did provide the car parking this may actually further increase parking demand in the area and may also set a precedent for the provision of Council parking in other centres. It may also generate additional traffic in Kleins Road and the local road network.

 

The existing road reservation along Kleins Road and surrounding streets are not wide enough to increase on-street parking. However, there is opportunity to increase the time limited parking in the area to accommodate for some of the loss of short term parking spaces that would be required as a result of the intersection upgrade.

 

It is suggested that a Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) could be entered into as part of the planning proposals to contribute toward:

a)   the Kleins/Briens Roads intersection upgrade; and

b)   the provision of Council owned car parking including land acquisition/dedication, demolition and construction.

 

The value of any VPA would be dependent upon changes to zoning/permitted land uses, height, density achieved by the planning proposals. However, any future VPA may only partially fund traffic upgrades/car parking and Council may need to find the additional funds from an alternate source.

 

Further upgrades to the intersection at Redbank Road are also suggested to ameliorate existing traffic problems and also enable future growth of the existing industrial areas to accommodate business park uses suggested in the initial Westmead Precinct Study concept plan (see Attachment 4).

 

Westmead Specialised Health Precinct

 

Council has been undertaking Strategic Planning for the Westmead Specialised Health Precinct. This precinct extends to include part of Northmead including the area of interest in Kleins/Briens Roads. Preliminary structure planning identifies potential increases in residential density west of Kleins Road and a potential Business Park east of Kleins Road. Council officers are continuing to investigate this area including consideration of studies relating to employment and traffic.

 

Other Options

 

There are a number of alternative measures that Council could pursue that may improve the existing traffic and parking issues in Northmead.

 

·     Increase time restricted parking areas in proximity of the existing Kleins Road shops to increase availability of short stay parking.

·     Increase enforcement of time limited parking in the locality.

·     Seek VPAs in conjunction with the planning proposals in Boundary/Kleins Road to contribute part of the cost of the intersection upgrade at Kleins/ Briens Roads and/or the provision of Council car parking in the locality.

·     That parking demand/traffic issues be further investigated as part of the Westmead Precinct work and that Council develop an Infrastructure Plan for the precinct to discuss with relevant State Agencies with respect to funding.

·     That Council consider nominating Westmead under the State Government’s Urban Activation Precinct Program and that appropriate infrastructure funding be sought.

 

Next Steps

 

It is recommended that a Councillor Workshop be undertaken to further discuss the matter, with particular emphasis to investigate options for the use of s94 funds collected under superseded plans.