Greens councillor Kym Chapple sparks debate over replacing Royal Randwick with affordable housing

A Sydney Greens councillor has sparked debate with a controversial suggestion that Royal Randwick Racecourse would be the prime location for public housing and parklands. Have your say.

UNSW student's design of housing on the south side of Randwick Racecourse.

Fresh debate has been sparked about the potential for a residential transformation of Royal Randwick, with a Sydney Greens councillor suggesting the city’s prime horse racing precinct could make way for parkland and public housing.

Randwick Greens councillor Kym Chapple shared an article on Twitter about Singapore closing its only racetrack to make way for public housing, saying “can we all imagine the outrage if I suggested this at council?”.

Ms Chapple, a staunch opponent against billionaire developer Harry Triguboff’s high rise Meriton for Little Bay, suggested Royal Randwick could be divided between parkland and density housing and called on governments to “step up” and deliver “public and affordable housing and parklands”.

Speaking to this publication, The Greens politician said the state government had to build more housing “to deal with the obscenely long waiting list” and that public housing had not risen with demand in the Randwick area.

“Part of what the council can do is identify opportunities [like Royal Randwick] for government investment in this,” she said.

Can we all imagine the outrage if I suggested this at council? pic.twitter.com/yAsza0vYzk

— Kym Chapple (@kymtje) June 8, 2023

Ms Chapple’s online post sparked a debate, with fellow councillor Daniel Rosenfield commenting he could “indeed imagine” the outrage as he would be “one of the many” in opposition to such development.

When asked why, Mr Rosenfeld detailed the racetrack’s almost 200-year “historical significance” with Royal Randwick having held its first race in 1833.

Kym Chapple, Randwick Greens councillor

“It continues to be well attended at race meetings and brings in a large amount of economic activity for surrounding businesses,” he said.

The development of Sydney race tracks has happened before with Ascot at Mascot making way for Sydney Airport in 1941, and Rosebery sold to developers 20 years later.

Group 1-winning jockey Blake Spriggs said the notion of transforming Royal Randwick for residential purposes wasn’t well thought-out.

“(It is) a mistake to think you’re going to fix a housing issue by putting tens of thousands of people out of a job by closing racing down (in Randwick),” he said.

“Not to mention the billions of dollars lost to the government.

Jockey Blake Spriggs rode Vinnie Power to victory at Royal Randwick on November 6, 2018. (AAP Image/Simon Bullard)

The discussion comes as University of NSW students, in collaboration with Singaporean architecture company ‘WOHA’ – developed a masterplan which would deliver housing for 9500 people and commercial space for a further 19,000 south of the Royal Randwick precinct.

The student-led masterplan would not impact the venue’s current racing operations.

UNSW Built Environment, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture head of school associate professor Philip Oldfield said students were challenged to address urban challenges of housing affordability and climate change.

“The residential population density of the masterplan would be 25,000 people per square kilometre, which is a bit higher than central Paris,” he said.

Aerial view of the student masterplan for housing on southern side of Royal Randwick Racecourse and northern edge of UNSW campus.

Mr Oldfield said Royal Randwick was chosen by students as the site for the residential development because it has “great access” to amenities, including two light rail stops, and as it currently doesn’t “have a great benefit to the local population”.

The plans, which were only academic, were on display at UNSW and received the praise of Randwick deputy mayor Rafaela Pandolfini who said it was “an amazing project” and “should have been presented” to council.

Residential development at the Randwick racing precinct is extremely unlikely in the foreseeable future, with a 99-year lease in place with the Australian Turf Club.

Royal Randwick is also host to Australia’s richest race, The Everest, with a whopping $15m in prize money.

The Australian Turf Club and Crown Lands declined to comment.