Harold Park Paceway to trot off with Public Land
May 20th, 2009
The Harold Park Paceway has asked the Minister for Planing to use her Part 3A powers to determine a concept plan for the re-zoning and redevelopment of both the trotting facility and the adjacent historic Tramsheds.
The Greens are very concerned about this approach by the Trotting Club to have the concept plan determined inside the minister’s office. Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act is meant to give the minister power to fast track critical infrastructure, not to enable an owner to increase the value of a property by being granted a rezoning. The Greens are calling on the minister to refuse the Part 3A application and to refer the concept plan to the City of Sydney Council to carry out the necessary consultation and assessment.
Consultation Part 3A is a flawed process. Objectors are held at arms length from the decision makers but developers, particularly those who hand over large donations to the major parties, are able to get straight through to the minister. The process creates a very uneven playing field and has led to gross overdevelopment on sites such as the CUB site in Chippendale. The City of Sydney process is a much more open and public process and will allow objectors to have their voices heard.
The other key issue is the future of the historic Tramsheds that are adjacent to the Paceway. The process under which the title for the Tramsheds was transferred to the Trotting Club indicates that this valuable public land was handed over for a peppercorn consideration. In addition, the poor state of the Tramsheds, demonstrates that the Trotting Club has neglected this strategically located facility.
The Tramsheds site is a former depot for Sydney’s trams and now it seems to have found its way from public ownership into the hands of a horse racing business. There needs to be an examination of how this came about and exactly how much the trotting industry paid for it.
Whether or not the Tramsheds site remains the property of the trotting industry or is returned to public ownership, it should be used for a public purpose. Perhaps one good use is for it to be used as a depot for future light rail carriages or even buses. Other possible public uses can be developed by a thorough process of community consultation.
The Tramsheds site is a strategically located and important piece of public land that should be used for the benefit of the community, not to line the pockets of a developer or the trotting industry.
Below is a link to the Central Courier story and a second to the Sydney Morning Herald story. After opening the link to the Courier story use the arrow to go to page 4 for full story.
