Northern Beaches Council plan gives insight into how peninsula will look in 2040
The northern beaches has changed greatly in the last two decades. But how will it look in 20 years? The council has provided a fascinating insight which accounts for town centres, transport networks and a university.
Manly
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The council has revealed how the northern beaches could look in 2040 with the release of its draft strategic plan.
The peninsula is predicted to have more than 39,000 new residents, 11,200 extra homes and up to 13,000 new jobs.
There will also be a university campus, a series of low-carbon urban hubs and a sprawling network of cycle paths and B-Line style bus routes.
Northern Beaches Council staff have spent more than a year developing the Towards 2040 Draft Local Strategic Planning Statement which will guide how the peninsula is developed over the next two decades.
Councillors will debate the draft at Tuesday’s meeting before public consultation.
The plan is made up of 30 “planning priorities”.
Transport and infrastructure make up a large part of the plan with council aiming to drastically cut car travel.
The target is to slash the percentage of commuters travelling by car from 58.3 per cent to 35 per cent. Meanwhile the goal is to boost public transport usage from 17.9 per cent to 25 per cent while increasing those cycling five-fold and tripling the amount of people walking to work.
An increase in B-Line-style rapid transit bus services will be key, the draft states, with a plan to extend the existing B-Line to Newport and launch the Brookvale/Dee Why to Chatswood service, both in the next five years.
The draft also recommends improved bus links from Mona Vale to Macquarie Park and creating a rapid bus service between Brookvale/Dee Why and Manly to stop people driving to catch the ferry. The council will also investigate new ferry routes.
The plan also recommends spending millions of dollars on creating a vast network of cycle lanes with a focus on segregated lanes within 5km of urban centres. Routes to be prioritised include Brookvale/Dee Why to Chatswood, Manly to Mona Vale, Manly to Spit Bridge, Mona Vale to Frenchs Forest and Terrey Hills to Gordon/Pymble.
Kilometres of cycleways are also planned to connect Seaforth, Balgowlah and Manly to the new Frenchs Forest town centre.
The document predicts residents will be able to live without a car by 2040.
The plan also sets out the future of our residential centres with a focus on the five major hubs.
Frenchs Forest is proposed as being a world-leading health and education precinct, complete with a major university campus.
The suburb will take 4360 new homes and provide 3700 new jobs by 2040.
However, the council is aiming to avoid a rushed town centre that will not stand the test of time — as has been seen elsewhere in Sydney in recent years.
Instead there will be a “competitive design process” to ensure “design excellence” with the council aiming to secure the coveted Green Star rating for the town centre.
The plan for Brookvale is to create an “employment and innovation centre” by establishing a town centre hub while bringing life back to the streets, by revitalising the main commercial strip on Pittwater Rd. The plan also notes that Warringah Mall will “expand” and must “better integrate” with Brookvale.
Dee Why will become a “thriving cosmopolitan centre by the sea” with plans for a new civic hub as well as more than 1400 dwellings.
Meanwhile, Mona Vale will become a “contemporary, urban heart of the north” with the civic centre transformed into an arts centre and the creation of a “civic heart” in the Village Park. Manly’s vision is to be “Sydney’s premier seaside destination” with a focus on revitalising the laneways and creating a cultural and arts hub around the former aquarium and a health hub at North Head.
The plan also outlines how we will continue enjoying our standards of living, despite the increase in population and density.
Suburbs will be designed to be more compact, to prevent the need to drive around. There will be increased provisions for share cars, ebikes and electrical cars to promote sustainable transport.
With sporting space at a premium there will be rooftop parks and sports courts and the increased sharing of facilities such as schools.
The plan also indicates single-use open space, such as golf courses, will be transformed into “multifunctional spaces”.
The peninsula will be greener with 5000 trees plated each year and pedestrians will be prioritised over motorists in urban centres, the document states. There will also be a focus on making urban centres more social with community gardens and an array of evening and nightime activities.
In particular Frenchs Forest, Dee Why and Brookvale are earmarked for more night life.
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