Hills Shire Council proposes community centre in Box Hill’s Anthony Skarratt Reserve, Nelson Road

One of The Hills Shire’s fastest growing suburbs is set to receive social infrastructure residents have been crying out for, with plans in place for a multimillion-dollar community centre in the heart of a new reserve.

The rapid pace of residential development in Sydney’s northwest has been met with calls to boost the number of parks and community spaces for the area known as ‘The Garden Shire’.

Now Box Hill, one of The Hills’ fastest growing suburbs, is set to receive a new community centre with development plans valued at just under $2.8 million.

Hills Shire Mayor Dr Peter Gangemi said this community centre is the first of many steps council plans to deliver on for the growing Box Hill region.

“Once complete, the new community centre will provide a communal point for residents to gather together for meetings, activities and events, as well as to access our library resources,” Mayor Gangemi said.

He also expressed his gratitude to the Department of Planning and Environment for providing council with a grant under the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program to speed up the delivery of Box Hill’s new community centre.

Architectural sketches of Box Hill’s new community centre.

The approved masterplan for Anthony Skarratt Reserve.

In an extraordinary set of images, the Australian location intelligence company Nearmap has studied Box Hill’s rapid growth from a semirural hub to a residential centre.

Nearmap provides government organisations, alongside architectural, construction and engineering firms, with easy, instant access to high resolution aerial imagery, city-scale 3D content, artificial intelligence data sets, and geospatial tools to assist with urban planning, monitoring and development projects in across the globe.

When the community centre is complete, it will also include a fully fenced toddlers’ playground for families and children to spend time together outdoors.

The community centre will sit in the heart of the proposed Anthony Skarratt Reserve.

Under current plans, this reserve will also include four football fields with two centralised cricket pitches, cricket practice nets, two baseball fields, six multipurpose courts, a children’s playground and three car parks.

“When completed, (the community centre and reserve) will complement one another and provide a place where our current and future residents can access key services, socialise, exercise and learn,” Mayor Gangemi said.

The masterplan for Anthony Skarratt Reserve was adopted by The Hills Shire Council last year.

The original Box Hill Nelson community centre was sold and council allocated those funds towards the building of the new and larger community centre.

The current community centre will still be in operation until December and will be relocated to a different facility as construction begins on the new centre.