By Melanie Kembrey
Parramatta will have its own multi-million dollar quay, a beach and a major public space under an ambitious 20-year plan to put the Parramatta River front and centre as the city is redeveloped.
The sweeping $200 million concept plan aims to shift Parramatta's orientation towards the long-ignored river through a series of public works projects along a stretch of its foreshore.
After turning its back on the Parramatta River for years, Parramatta Council has a bold new plan to make it a key feature once again.
Parramatta Lord Mayor Scott Lloyd said the city had gradually turned its back on the river but the endorsement of the River Strategy would see the waterway become one of its key features.
The first phase of the plan will see the construction of "Parramatta Quay" to replace the current ferry wharf. A striking arrival centre, a new floating wharf and an outdoor dining plaza are among the design ideas.
The plan for a Parramatta "city beach" has drawn criticism and has been impractical and a waste of money.
Another key development is a large riverside public space called River Square which will hold up to 10,000 people and link up to the $2 billion dollar proposed Parramatta Square.
About 1.5 kilometres of the river foreshore is covered by the plan, which also includes a new cultural centre precinct, a redeveloped Riverside Theatres, a boardwalk and a new bridge.
There is also a proposal to create a "city beach" on the banks of the river with sand, beach furniture and a boat dock.
Labor councillor and Granville state MP Julia Finn said the "city beach" was an impractical and financially unviable idea and should be deleted from the plan.
An artist's impression of Parramatta Quay.
She said the sand would be washed into the river every time there was rain and the beach would become a "floating sandpit" if it was elevated about the flood plain.
The Parramatta River frequently floods where it passes through the city, inundating the foreshore and rendering it impassable.
Parramatta Council hopes to turn the Parramatta River into one of the city's key drawcards.
Cr Lloyd said planners were considering using warning detection systems and flood doors to stop the river floods disrupting the plans for the foreshore. The river levels also dropped fairly quickly after flooding, he said.
While the artists' impressions of the reactivated foreshore show a sparkling teal river, the water is most often murky brown and trash piles up near the ferry weir.
Cr Lloyd said the river was far healthier than it had been in the past and a campaign was underway to make the river swimmable by 2025.
"[The plan] will improve the city's connection with the river and protect it for people to enjoy," he said.
The various components of the River Strategy will be rolled out over the next 20 years with funding to be drawn from multiple sources including development contributions, rates, and state and federal government grants.
One of the most controversial elements under the plan saw the boring of tunnels through the state-heritage listed Lennox Bridge, one of the country's oldest bridges, to create a continous footpath and cycleway along the foreshore.
University of Western Sydney Associate Professor Michael Darcy, the director of the Urban Research Centre, said the broad concept of the strategy was "absolutely right". He said a key to its success would be ensuring the public spaces were not isolated from developments but interacted with them.
"When we look at really well used and high quality public spaces they actually facilitate and make use of density," he said. "This means that the public space isn't just space ... you go for something which has a function itself and then it becomes a destination in itself."