Transportation Planning Casebook/Bays Precinct Transformation

Summary
The Bays West redevelopment plan is a large-scale urban renewal project in Sydney, focusing on revitalising and transforming a portion of the city's inland harbour foreshore. The initiative aims to create a vibrant, multifunctional environment for living, working, and recreation by adopting an integrated and holistic approach. This comprehensive plan covers a wide range of aspects to achieve sustainable development, ensuring balanced growth for the area that meets the needs of its residents and visitors alike. In order to enhance land use and infrastructure, the project focuses on optimising public transportation efficiency, increasing the supply of affordable housing, improving public facilities, and developing more green spaces. This is expected to significantly contribute to the overall quality of life for the residents while addressing potential challenges posed by the growing population.

At the heart of the plan is the promotion of economic growth. Bays West aims to attract new businesses and innovative industries, creating employment opportunities for the local community and stimulating the regional economy. By fostering a thriving business environment, the project will generate prosperity and enhance the area's attractiveness to investors and entrepreneurs. Ecological sustainability is another crucial aspect of the Bays West redevelopment plan. By protecting and restoring coastal ecosystems, the project seeks to minimise the environmental impact of urban development while promoting the efficient use of resources. This ensures that the natural beauty of the region is preserved for future generations to enjoy. Community involvement is an essential element of the project's success. The Bays West plan encourages residents to participate in urban planning, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility among the local population. This collaborative approach ensures that the needs of the community are addressed and that the project enjoys widespread support. Lastly, the Bays West redevelopment plan pays close attention to cultural activities and heritage preservation. By respecting and preserving the area's historical heritage, the project seeks to integrate both new and existing architectural and cultural elements. This approach not only enriches the area's identity but also helps maintain a connection between the past and the present.

Annotated List of Actors
Land within Bays West is almost entirely owned by the government. Several NSW Government agencies own, manage, and use the site’s land, waterways, wharves, and infrastructure.

Policy Issues
Public Transport Integration

The Bays West precinct is centred around a new Metro Station that will be constructed as part of the Sydney Metro West project. Community concerns have been raised that not enough planning and attention has been given to other modes of transport that surround the precinct, namely bus and light rail services.

Numerous bus services currently traverse the western edge of the precinct, but access to these services is limited due to a lack of pedestrian crossings at signalised intersections and frequent grade changes that result in circuitous walking routes. Submissions to the precinct have called for the expansion of existing services to serve the precinct better, improvements to walkability and better integration of bus and metro services through a proper and well placed interchange. Alternative arguments for proposed bus changes have raised concerns that rerouting of services will reduce direct buses to the city and add extra travel time for those travelling through the area.

The Inner West Light rail line travels from the city to Dulwich Hill and has a stop called Rozelle Bay that is close to the precinct. Although the stop is only 600m away, the current walking route is five times that distance due to convoluted walking access caused by the City Westlink motorway. A landbridge is proposed to be constructed over the motorway to provide a direct active transport link between the Rozelle Bay light rail stop and future residents and the Metro station.

Active Transport Links

In connection to the above challenges caused by the City Westlink Motorway, there are also existing access challenges for the two main bus stops either side of Victoria Road near the White Bay Power Station. In the City of Sydney’s submission to the precinct, they called for a pedestrian and cyclist bridge be constructed from the new precinct to these stops. Further, Council also raised that there is a lack of secure bicycle parking facilities for the planned bus and metro interchange and that this piece of infrastructure is essential for the planned promotion of greater active transport use in the precinct.

There have been calls to re-open the Glebe Island Bridge, which was the original road connection between Glebe and Rozelle before the ANZAC bridge was opened. This connection would be used as an active transport link and would be more conducive to active modes than the bridge that replaced it. Challenges with this proposal have be raised including that the bridge will need extensive upgrades and that existing boating and kayaking access to Blackwattle Bay would be restricted by the bridge switching from its current ‘open’ position to a ‘closed’ position. Proponents for the reopening of the bridge have been calling for a decision to be made by government and insisting that it should be brought forward to earlier stages of the project than currently forecasted.

Heritage

There exists within the precinct multiple important heritage assets, such as the White Bay Power Station and the Glebe Island Wheat Silos. In 2020, potential plans to demolish the Power Station to increase the dwelling potential of the precinct were floated by the then Premier, but this approach was scrapped soon after as a result of community and political opposition. At this stage, panning documents acknowledge the importance of retaining the precinct’s heritage fabric and realising the potential it represents. But despite these assurances, there remains community concern that the height and bulk of new buildings will overshadow and block views of the the heritage items and that they will not respect the character or scale of existing buildings.

Road connectivity

The plans for the first stage of Bays West show only one road in and out of the precinct. Accompanying planning documentation outlines that this decision is intentional as planning for movement around the precinct has focussed and centred around the metro and active transport modes. These will be prioritised over cars and vehicular transport, with exception of buses, to create a more walkable and healthy environment. Local community submissions have raised potential issues with this approach, especially warning of traffic congestion for the singular intersection and road which leads to the metro station and the flow on effects this would have on surrounding roads and areas. Furthermore, the surrounding suburban area in Rozelle is still very car centric and so submitters outline that traffic planning for the precinct should better consider surrounding areas. To assume adjacent car-centric areas will quickly adapt once the precinct is complete is potentially shortsighted.

Cruise Terminal Operations

It is planned that the White Bay Cruise Terminal, in the northern portion of Bays West, will continue to operate as a permanent component of the precinct. The terminal and associated operations have the potential to cause land use conflicts with residential areas as a result of noise, air pollution from ships, blocking vistas and viewpoints and additional traffic that would occur in high volumes at specific times.

Delivering the project

White Bay and surrounds have had multiple plans over the decades including a highly publicised deal with Google to build an innovation hub that never eventuated. The complexities of the precinct are likely the culprit for delays in revitalising it; this exposes an important question, will government be able to bring together all of the necessary agencies and actors outlined above to ensure they are on the same page and can collectively deliver the precinct in a timely and orderly fashion? In the face of confounding issues and conflicting views on how the precinct should be planned, compounded with broad criticisms for the similar Barangaroo precinct, Bays West is likely to be challenging for the state government to get right.

Narrative
The Case for Change

As the industrial nature of Bays West has evolved over time, the people and activities in and around the site were progressively excluded; now that economic conditions have reduced the importance of Bays West as an industrial area and port, the area’s life and vitality is notably missing. The plans for Bays West seek to create a vibrant and connected precinct that respects its cultural heritage and capitalises on its location close to the CBD.

Sydney Metro Station

The process for choosing station locations for the Sydney Metro West project was a complex balancing act between travel time savings and servicing as many communities as possible. In the end nine stations were approved including a station servicing The Bays. The decision to include The Bays over other alternatives was based on the potential the precinct holds to house large numbers of new residents and create many new jobs, notably within knowledge intensive industries. Further, a connection with the existing Inner West Light Rail Line, the multiple bus lines that traverse the area and the potential to serve tourists at the White Bay Cruise Terminal were also deciding factors.

Revitalising industrial waterfronts

The concept of transforming previously industrial waterfront land into new high rise neighbourhoods is commonplace throughout the world. Specific case studies were analysed as part of planning for the precinct including the Coal Drop Yards in London and The Naval Yard in Philadelphia. There are common elements among all of the examples, namely the existence of a number of heritage items pertaining to previous industrial uses, the location close to the city centre and provision of high frequency public transport to service them.

Knowledge Hub

There are plans for Bays West to become a hub for knowledge intensive jobs and industries as part of development of a ‘knowledge corridor’ spanning from the Central Station precinct to Bays West and beyond to Parramatta and Westmead along the Sydney Metro West Line. Bays West is also in the northern corner of the Sydney ‘Tech Central’ precinct which includes The University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney and Sydney Airport. The Tech Central program involves government-funded access to affordable office space for startups and support for greater STEM university placements. Within the Bays, the continuation of port and maritime uses has been raised as a unique opportunity for Bays West to become specialised in these uses.

Discussion Questions

 * 1) Transportation planning for the precinct is focussing mostly on active and public transport modes rather than cars (example being the single road in and out of the precinct) is this approach sensical or naïve?
 * 2) The precinct will retain the White Bay Cruise Terminal which could affect future residents. When it comes to the transportation of tourists, are their temporary needs more important than the permanent needs of residents?
 * 3) There have been multiple plans for Bays West over the decades. The construction of a Metro station appears to be the missing piece that secured the precinct. Should it be a requirement that major renewal precincts are always supported by high frequency transport?
 * 4) Bays West Precinct and Sydney Metro West are examples of megaprojects, which are becoming larger, pricier and more complex as they become commonplace in NSW. Should NSW shift back towards smaller decentralised projects or are megaprojects the way of the future?
 * 5) Large revitalisation projects can attract a lot of negative reactions from the local community. Do large projects such as these get too harshly or unfairly treated or is this a natural part of change that yields better outcomes?