Western Sydney Aerotropolis masterplan: 50 year wait coming for Bradfield City Centre
Western Sydney’s stalled aerotropolis has hit a major milestone with the city centre’s master plan finally revealed to the public, although officials concede construction will be ongoing for 50 years.
NSW
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Visitors entering Sydney through the new western airport will be flying into a construction zone for the next 50 years.
NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully conceded it would likely take five decades for Bradfield, the brand new city centre set to spring up in the aerotropolis surrounding the airport, to reach completion.
“The master plan process (says this is) a decades long development. There’s 80 buildings at 15 stories high. It’s not the sort of thing that pops up overnight,” he said on Monday, as the government unveiled their draft master plan for Bradfield.
“I think that while the master plan says that it’s a 50-year time horizon for this complete city to come out of the ground, I think you’ll find that it happens a whole lot quicker than that just based on the absolute demand for it.”
The western Sydney airport is due to open in 2026, with various businesses and industry groups criticising the Western Parkland City Authority for what it deems a lack of progress on the aerotropolis surrounding the airport.
Authority chair Jennifer Westacott on Monday was defiant, backing the timeframe in place for work around the precinct.
“I don’t accept those criticisms of the authority. You’ve got to do things properly. You’ve got to do this carefully and we are designing this city…for 100 years. You’ve got to do that with care, with caution (and) with due diligence,” Ms Westacott said.
Deputy Premier Prue Car also defended current time frames, saying building the country’s first new city in 100 years was “no small undertaking”.
“We really are on the precipice of history here,” she said.
The draft Bradfield master plan will be open for public feedback until March 4.
The latest plans include a vision for 20,000 jobs and 10,000 homes in the city centre, as well as 80 towers up to 15 storeys high.
AEROTROPOLIS PROGRESS SLAMMED
The master plan’s unveiling followed revelations in The Daily Telegraph the Western Parkland City Authority (WPCA) was sitting on $500 million in unspent grants and had only managed to start work on a visitors centre that has been dismissed as a shed with a fancy pergola.
Business Western Sydney chief executive David Borger welcomed the WPCA’s new plan but said it had taken far “too long” to arrive.
“They’ve taken a long time, we didn’t know what they have been doing, but actually they’ve delivered a good plan,” he said.
“It’s like Oppenheimer: it’s a great movie, but it’s taken too long.”
The Bradfield City Centre Master Plan will deliver space for 80 buildings up to 15 storeys high, with two million square metres of gross floor area available for development.
It was finally delivered to Planning Minister Paul Scully’s department in November and has now been approved by cabinet for public display and consultation.
But the blueprint only maps out the Bradfield City Centre with concrete plans for the entire aerotropolis still in the pipeline and lagging far behind the gleaming new airport which is due to start operating in 2026.
The delays have angered hi-tech companies who signed memorandums of understanding up to seven years ago and are still waiting for work to commence.
Delivery giant Amazon was in talks about leasing an as-yet-unbuilt factory in the Mamre Road precinct but dropped those discussions to pursue other locations in Western Sydney.
Under the new plan, the 114 hectare Bradfield City Centre will create space for 10,000 homes and 20,000 jobs. It will include 36 hectares of open space, waterways and playgrounds, and a two-hectare Central Park.
The plan also proposes 17.8km of “healthy active travel facilities” and has 40 per cent tree canopy cover to keep the city cool.
Mr Borger said it was another example of the state’s moribund planning system. “In terms of what we need to be doing for this city to fix the supply of new houses, we need to be going faster,” he said.
“There’s been pressure on the accelerator but we’re still in the slow lane on planning. We need to get into the fourth gear and we’re not seeing that around Sydney,” he said.
Mr Borger said the planning blueprint was well designed and would deliver a good city with a “well located central park, boulevards of trees to keep people cool in summer, and a tried and tested grid system”.
Deputy Premier Prue Car said the plan was backed by $1 billion in investment from the NSW Government.
“This Master Plan shows how investment in the area surrounding the new airport will drive growth and better opportunities for all Western Sydney,” she said.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform Western Sydney and can only be realised if we work together to ensure it benefits everyone.”
Planning Minister Paul Scully said the Master Plan is a “draft blueprint for a world-class city” that will attract investment, house thousands of people, and create thousands of jobs.
“This is the first Master Plan to be publicly exhibited after progressing through the new Aerotropolis masterplanning pathway and it’s critical we hear directly from the community and stakeholders as we lay the groundwork for significant infrastructure plans.”
Western Parkland City Authority chair Jennifer Westacott said the release of the Master Plan was a “significant milestone that builds on the substantial momentum already underway in the Aerotropolis”.
That includes work on delivering the first stage Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF), due to open in the middle of this year.
Around 30 local and international companies have expressed interest, the WPCA said.
The full-scale AMRF will open in 2026, with a focus on semiconductor packaging.
The government hopes to finalise the master plan - following public feedback - by the middle of the year.
Regarding Amazon’s operations near the new Airport, Amazon Australia Director of Operations, Sandra McNeil said: “Amazon is here to stay and we are continuing to invest and expand our operations in western sydney.
“We have already created more than 2000 jobs in Kemps Creek with hundreds more to come around the corner in Horsley Park - all within a stones throw of the new airport.”
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