NSW Government developer Landcom reveals plan for pocket parks at stations

Open green space neighbouring the new Sydney Metro northwest station will become a reality as NSW Government developer Landcom brings Tallawong Station online.

Jake McCallumUrban Affairs Reporter

@jakeMcCallum_

2 min read

June 17, 2019 - 4:39PM

Hills Shire Times

Landcom GM Scott Gregg (middle) with residents enjoying the new temporary pocket park at Tallawong Station.

Pocket parks will be popping up across The Hills, in a plan to bring life and green space to new Sydney Metro northwest stations.

The first temporary park in the green space initiative by NSW Government developer Landcom has opened this week at Tallawong Station; however, plans to roll them out in several locations including Showground, Kellyville and Bella Vista are in the works.

Landcom projects general manager Scott Gregg told The Hills Shire Times it has been working with the NSW Government and Sydney Metro to include green space in the plans for each station for the past four years.

A food truck is set up in the new Rouse Hill Tallawong Station pocket park. .

“Now the doors of the Metro are open, we can actually put our feet on the land and start to make a difference to the community,” he said.

“The last three or four years has been about trying to line up some of the zoning to make these spaces a reality.”

Mr Gregg said Landcom were working to make sure they didn’t have “empty stations” along the network — sparking the creation of temporary and permanent pocket parks.

Tallawong Station has the first pocket park complete. Picture: Joel Carrett

“We want to really energise the area and create some local activation sites to try and get the community to attach itself to these new public spaces,” Mr Gregg said.

“However, in the future, each of the precincts surrounding the stations will have large, high quality, permanent, public spaces.”

A 3000sq m public park at Tallawong Station in Rouse Hill will be the largest green space project by Landcom along the Sydney Metro northwest line — which will also see the creation of a new a $386 million town centre precinct for 1,107 homes across 7.8 hectares neighbouring the park and Metro.

The Sydney Metro Northwest opening to the public for the first time. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu

A total of 16 apartment buildings ranging from two to eight storeys high are included in the applications, which were also proposed by the NSW Government developer.

Landcom chief executive John Brogden said the new communities will benefit high-quality public open spaces, parks, cycling connections, walking paths, play spaces and sporting grounds easily accessible to all under the Landcom plan.

The Tallawong Town Centre at Rouse Hill.

“These high-amenity public spaces will serve to support everyone enjoying these new communities, from the residents that will call these places home, to the children who will attend the new schools, and the people working in and around the new employment hubs that will grow along the Metro Northwest rail line,” he said.

“Once the development at Tallawong is completed, this wonderful Pocket Park will be replaced by a permanent public plaza and park in excess of 3,000 square metres designed to cater for a range of recreational uses.”