Designs for a new car park were shared with the community in September 2021 and are being finalised now. Highlights of the new car park include:
- parking for 75 vehicles
- new traffic circulation, kiss-n-ride drop off parking and disability parking
- universal access to the Refugee Welcome Centre and the Glover Street Sport Ground
- understory plantings to blend into the park
- substantial tree planting, including a buffer screen of native trees to Broughton Hall
- Waterfront Drive will be permanently closed to traffic.
Wharf Road will remain 2-way, while Military Drive will become a shared zone with a one-way flow of traffic up Military Drive to the intersection of Central Avenue, where 2-way flows will revert.
Q. How have you worked out how many car spaces you need and is it enough? What will happen when it's busy and there are no available spaces?
The number of car spaces proposed considers peak parking demand data, feedback from stakeholders, heritage constraints, and the desire to ensure the parking is integrated into the park. It has also been especially crucial to include a generous planting buffer between Broughton Hall and the car park, to preserve the significant trees and ensure no visual impacts on the curtilage.
The design concentrates the parking within a much smaller area than the current parking on Waterfront Drive, to provide more open green space for the community.
Parking will still be available along Wharf Road and other parts of the park including at Ambulance NSW on Balmain Road.
Q. What trees and shrubs will be planted?
We are using a variety of native trees and groundcovers to enhance the natural landscape. The design incorporates plantings that reflect the Indigenous landscape and build on the tree plantings on the site, such as lemon scented gums, Angophora costatas, blueberry ash, Canary Island date palms, scribbly gum, jacarandas and spotted gum. Groundcover will include Australian native wildflowers, flannel flowers, mountain devils, coastal rosemary and many others to achieve a diversity of species. Over 73 new shade trees will be planted in the car park alone to increase tree canopy in this space.
Q. What paved surface materials will be used for walking on, e.g. dirt tracks or concrete paving?
Paths in Waterfront Green are predominantly deco gravel with some concrete pathways. In Wharf Road and Military Drive, we propose to reflect the park's heritage, so the road surfaces will be bitumen as is currently the case. The car park spaces will be surfaced with permeable grid pavers and filled with deco gravel to increase water absorption.
Q. Will there be a separate bicycle facility adjacent to the Wharf Road entrance from Perry Street to the car park?
Not as part of this stage of the works. The priority is the waterfront, however, vehicles will be slowed along Wharf Road, making access to the park safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Q. Will Wharf Road be made one-way?
No, it will be retained as a 2-way flow of traffic. The new slow zone will dramatically reduce the speeds in which vehicles travel in and out of the waterfront.
Q. Will it be timed parking, and will we have to pay fees?
The parking will be free and unrestricted at this stage, similar to the other 2 car parks in Callan Park.
Q. Are all new design elements in keeping with the Heritage NSW significance values for Callan Park?
The designs are all grounded in a deep understanding of the heritage significance of the park as captured in the Conservation Management Plan and policies that ensure heritage values are conserved.
Heritage NSW has issued its consent for the removal of the buildings, which is currently underway and expressed its support for the proposals outlined in the Landscape Structure Plan.
The design for Waterfront Green incorporates the story of the casuarina garden as told to us by Bangawarra Indigenous consultants. We feel that it is important to strengthen the connections to Country and allow these connections to be re-made as an underpinning of the design approach.
Q. What is the timing of the next sequence of DAs?
The DAs for Waterfront Green and the new amenities block are lodged with the NSW Heritage Office and Inner West Council for consideration, with a DA approval expected to be determined in the first half of 2022.
The DA for the Wharf Road Car Park is on track to be lodged with the Heritage Office and IWC in April 2022.
The realignment of the Bay Run is still being designed with a DA expected to be lodged in the second half of 2022.
Q. During construction, what will the parking arrangements be? That area is used a lot for parking during game days.
A Traffic Management plan will be developed to ensure the safety of park visitors and access to the waterfront is maintained. There will be some changes to the parking and access, and these will be communicated well in advance of any construction taking place.
Q. Is there potential for using Water-Ups or alternative?
There will be irrigation for the new landscaped areas, and we are still finalising what type of irrigation will be used.
Q: Can you confirm that the Broughton Hall internal roads will not be available for use as access?
There is no intention to use Broughton Hall roads for access through the park.