Fairfield Council settles on Horsley Park, Cecil Park redevelopment option

From 14,000 to 19,600 homes will likely be built in Horsley Park and Cecil Park, after a three month consultation helped Fairfield Council pick the plan favoured most by landowners.

Conceptual drawings illustrating how Cecil Park and Horsley Park could be developed.

• Western Sydney’s 20 year blueprint
• 7ha Business Park pitched for Cecil Park

The number of homes that’ll be built in Horsley Park and Cecil Park is firming up to be from 14,100 to 19,600, after a three month consultation helped Fairfield City Council identify the plans favoured most by landowners.

The announcement, made late Thursday afternoon in the lead up to the Easter long weekend, offers some clarity on the future of the semirural and farmland suburbs, after five options were proposed in November and December last year.

Preferred Structure Plan for redevelopment of Horsley Park and Cecil Park. Pic: Fairfield City Council

In the coming months and years, Local, State and Federal Governments will work on developing Horsley Park into mostly 1-acre (4000 sqm) residential lots, and Cecil Park into a busy town centre with thousands of homes.

Fairfield City Council said it will exhibit a work-in-progress version of the plan that will act as a blueprint for the two suburbs going forward. This version – a combination of proposals D and E, released in December – will have different parts workshopped with the community and with government stakeholders.

Whether a train station will be developed in the town centre of Cecil Park, for instance, will boil down to State and Federal Governments delivering the investment. If it’s built, it would connect Cecil Hills to Parramatta and the Western Sydney Airport, and would likely result in larger apartments being developed in the town-centre, according to the earlier proposals. A new master plan would be developed to inform this decision.

Farmland at Horsley Park. Pic: Simon Bullard

The new town centre, it has been revealed, would be situated on the part of Cecil Road closer to Elizabeth Drive, where the business PGH Bricks & Pavers is currently located.

There would also be consultation on the employment area proposed north of Burley Road in Horsley Park, which would be finetuned around the Federal Government’s Western Sydney Freight Line.

Fairfield City Council received responses from 271 people during the three month consultation period. Council said 75 per cent of them “supported change in their suburbs”.

Artists rendering of a proposed Business Park in Cecil Park.

Options D and E, of which the new plan is based on, received a combined 47 per cent of support from responders, council said. These plans removed a main, arterial road running through both suburbs that was proposed in plans A, B and C. They also zoned Horsley Park into mostly one-acre lots, like option A, whereas others proposed converting it into a large employment area.

Council said 25 per cent of people voted for no change, and a combined 23 per cent were in favour of options B and C.

The prospect of development was met with both avid fanfare and protest. A petition was put forward in support of options D and E, council said. It had 338 signatures – 112 of which indicated they lived within the affected area.

Some residents launched a campaign opposing the redevelopment of Cecil Park and Horsley Park.

Another petition circulated opposing all redevelopment. Of its 370 signatures, 53 signatories lived in the two suburbs.

Cecil Park and Horsley Park – semirural and farming precincts with a combined population of 2600 as of 2016 – were identified as ideal candidates for redevelopment by the Greater Sydney Commission and State Government agencies. This is because of their proximity to the Western Sydney Airport, the M7 and proposed M12 motorways, and future employment prospects.

Going forward, details on the new plan will be mailed out to the landowners affected by the proposal, council said, and to the people, organisations and businesses that placed submissions.

Then planning – on roads, infrastructure, traffic, open space and environmental issues – will take place in the next year or two, between both the community and State and Federal agencies.

Fairfield City Council did not disclose when the new planning option would be publicly exhibited. As of the time of writing, Thursday, April 18, the preferred structure plan is not yet exhibited online.