Minns government blasts through red tape to build North Parramatta apartments

A strip of tired shopfronts in North Parramatta is set to make way for 30-storey apartment blocks and hundreds of new homes, with the Minns government seizing control of local planning rules to increase density limits near Sydney’s second CBD.

A strip of tired shopfronts in North Parramatta including an abandoned graffiti-covered retail site is set to make way for 30-storey apartment blocks and hundreds of new homes, with the Minns government seizing control of local planning rules to increase density limits near Sydney’s second CBD.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the government has stepped in to blast through red tape and rezone Parramatta’s Church Street North precinct after years of bureaucratic delays.

The 17 hectare strip of land around two light rail stations will have height limits and floor space increased.

Specific height limits are yet to be determined, but the rezoning could support apartment blocks up to 30 storeys high.

Plans for increasing density in the Church Street North precinct had been delayed for years due to bureaucratic red tape at both the council and Planning Department level.

NSW Premier Chris Minns and his government has stepped in to blast through red tape and rezone Parramatta’s Church Street North precinct after years of bureaucratic delays. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

The Telegraph understands that Planning Minister Paul Scully, took charge of rezoning the land after council asked the Minns government to step in and make a decision.

The rezoning will support high-rise apartments either side of the Fennell Street and Prince Alfred Square light rail stations, on the first stage of the Parramatta Light Rail due to start running next year.

The rezoning makes good on a promise Premier Chris Minns made at The Daily Telegraph’s Bradfield Oration last year to increase housing density along public transport corridors.

“We need to take full advantage of the investments our state’s taxpayers make into new public transport infrastructure,” Mr Minns said.

“Suburbs like Parramatta already have the infrastructure and amenities to support more homes.

“More and more you will see the Government link the construction of transport infrastructure with the construction of more homes.”

The area around Church Street that will be up-zoned by the Minns government.,

Mr Scully said the area is “well-equipped” to accommodate more houses.

“This announcement ensures there will soon be hundreds of new homes available right on the doorstep of the Parramatta CBD,” he said.

Business Western Sydney Executive Director David Borger welcomed the move, declaring it will allow the northern part of Parramatta to “become a modern, thriving, and well-connected metropolis”.

He said that the rezoning will finally consign a derelict old building on the corner of Victoria Road and Church Street to history.

“For ten years, the gateway to North Parramatta has been a crumbling eyesore covered in graffiti. Now that the area will be rezoned, it can be turned into well-designed development we can be proud of,” he said.

The announcement came ahead of the Premier’s keynote address to the Housing Now! conference in Parramatta on Thursday.

Mr Minns will tell the alliance of pro-housing ‘Yimbys’ that Sydney must change to get people into homes.

“Cities do change, whether we like it or not,” he will say.