Addressing housing in Sydney’s Northern Beaches
The vision for this proposed residential subdivision is for a thriving, sustainable residential community that responds to Sydney’s growth and housing demand while prioritising equity, health, environmental protection, cultural connection, community voice, and resilience in the face of climate change.
Planning for the area in consultation with State Government and Council had been progressing for years, with a Land Use and Infrastructure Implementation Plan for 3,400 dwellings, biodiversity, and associated water related services and urban amenities exhibited in 2016.
Since then, planning for the area has evolved in response to community consultation and expert advice on several key disciplines, culminating in a toned-down proposal for a suite of planning controls to facilitate the delivery of medium density residential, areas for public recreation, and environmental conservation zones to preserve the site’s important biodiversity. Residential development would comprise a mix of housing types and has been designed sensitively to the existing characteristics and conditions of the local and broader area.
Transport planning
PDC Consultants worked on behalf of landowners, Mirvac and Truslan, by providing transport expertise to assist in the delivery of a masterplan over an area of around 28 hectares. Investigations involved an assessment of key public, active, and private transport infrastructure in the area which could be leveraged and improved upon to encourage sustainable transport and work towards benefiting the local community through the provision of transport infrastructure.
Bushfire assessment and innovative planning
Evacuation in the event of a bushfire formed a key consideration of prior proposals for the area and we worked closely with the project team, evacuation specialists, and bushfire consultants to develop a bespoke methodology for assessing road network performance in the event of a bushfire, to ensure the proposed transport response to the masterplan was developed with community resilience at the forefront.
