The is an email that that was sent on 4 September 2018 to supporters that signed on via our website. Please share your email address if you want to know what we know. We only email with real news and not very often. 

After our email Mirvac announced they are holding at public drop-in information session on Saturday 22 September 2018 from 10am to 2pm. This is to be held at 16 Carrington Rd, Marrickville. It should be noted that Mirvac does not have a new proposal, so no new plans will be displayed at this info session.

Renewing the Sydenham to Bankstown Corridor: A prospectus for Inclusive Renewal was published by City Futures Research Centre in July 2018. We love it! 

These are short extracts, for the full report click on the cover.

"... It is not too late to reboot the planning of the corridor by a visionary renewal process that will benefit the communities who already live and work here, as well as provide much needed new housing and quality neighbourhoods for the new population who will arrive in the next twenty years.

"What cannot be allowed to happen is the wholesale displacement of the existing community and its replacement with sterile neighbourhoods that have been seen in comparable locations across Sydney. These planning blunders will be with us – and those who live in the outcome – for decades."

"There needs to an honest and open discussion between politicians, policy makers and communities about the kind of city we are and what we want to be."

Their research supports what Save Marrickville asks:

• We want sympathetic well designed development and density with proper transition zones.
  Not over development or imposing high rise.
• We would like planning control to be given back to council and the community.
• We feel it is critical that our heritage and local character are preserved.
• Marrickville’s industrial land should be preserved.
• Infrastructure needs to be planned first before rezoning.
• Affordable housing quotas must be in place.

Darcy Byrne, Inner West Council mayor via Facebook 27 July at 18:01

In a colossal win for the community we have just defeated Mirvac’s proposal for 35 storey skyscrapers in Carrington Road Marrickville

The State Government has agreed to hand back control of planning in the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor to our council and local community.

We’ve fought long and hard to put an end to developer driven planning proposals in this corridor, and today we are thrilled to take back control of planning for the Sydenham, Marrickville and Dulwich Hill communities.

I congratulate the State Member for Summer Hill Jo Haylen and local activists, including the Save Marrickville and Save Dully community groups, for their determined and successful advocacy to achieve this result.

Special thanks to Anthony Albanese MP for helping to negotiate this excellent outcome with the Government. I thank Planning Minister Anthony Roberts for listening to the community.

Today’s decision puts an end to Mirvac’s ridiculous proposal for a 35 storey high rise development, with 2600 units in Carrington Road. This really is Marrickville, not Mirvacville!

Their plan would have destroyed more than 1,000 jobs and resulted in the forced closure of a whole cluster of businesses that are central to Sydney’s creative industries.

Our new plans will be developed by the community, not multinational developers.

Darcy explained later: The Carrington Road proposal from Mirvac was entirely predicated on that site being rezoned under the Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor Strategy. That strategy will now not be gazetted and has no legal status. The existing Marrickville Environmental Plan which is an industrial zoning is the law. Mirvac's Carrington Road proposal is dead.

As reported on 9NEWS

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RESPONSE FROM SAVE MARRICKVILLE

This is a huge win for democracy and is thanks to everyone who raised their voices - came to rallies, meetings, wrote reports, talked to their neighbours, posted on social media, put up signs - and spoke up for this neighbourhood, which we all love. You guys rock!

This campaign has never been about stopping all development, just overdevelopment. We love our community and happily welcome new people to it... but for Marrickville to continue to be a great place to live and work, the community needs a real say on planning and development.

Marvellous things can happen (especially before elections) but the battle’s not over yet ... we know that high density development is still on the agenda across Sydney, and plenty of communities are still facing loss of heritage, amenity, nature and public space, as well as noise and air pollution...

So a big cheers to everyone who helped win this one, keep your Save Marrickville signs up and watch this space!

Anthony Albanese MP, Jo Haylen, Darcy Byrne, Colin Hesse - Greens, Clr Mark Drury - Inner West Council - Labor, Councillor Pauline Lockie - Inner West Council, Mat Howard Save Dully AG, RIPA Sydney, Save Our Suburbs, Sydenham to Bankstown Alliance, Greater Sydney Commission, GreaterSydney.Community, Marrickville Heritage Society and MadeinMarrickville

Field Trip is a series of community-led walking tours in Marrickville and Sydenham. We are learning about the area’s industrial, infrastructural and creative spaces, as well as engaging people in a conversation about the future of the neighbourhood.

Listen to the overview of Carrington Road podcast by Front Yard Projects.

Anthony Albanese MP and ‘Save Marrickville’ spokesperson Kelsie Dadd launch the Marrickville Character Study

Federal MP, Anthony Albanese MP helped launched a new study of the character and heritage of Marrickville at a well attended meeting held at the Atlas Community Centre on 6 July 2018. Read it here.

The document was produced by resident group Save Marrickville in its campaign to protect the character of Marrickville from massive overdevelopment. More photos on our Facebook page.

Check out Kelsie's presentation slides from the event.

The Greater Sydney Commission invited community groups and the Inner West Council to meet with them on 22 May 2018.

Save Marrickville was represented by Heather Davie and Paul Mortimer, who reported that they “felt genuinely heard” by the commission.

At the meeting, community representatives put their concerns regarding development to the commission and asked that preservation of character and industrial land be given greater emphasis.

Save Marrickville also requested that the Inner West Council and the local community be given much more involvement in decisions on local development.

A copy of the Marrickville Character Study published by the Save Marrickville group, was presented to the Greater Sydney Commission. Check it out here.

Save Marrickville are organising a community meeting to let you know about our work and the developments (ha!) so far. Sign up to receive an invitation by email.

Rod Simpson (Greater Sydney Environment Commissioner), Darcy Byrne (Mayor, Inner West Council), Peter Olive (Sydenham - Bankstown Alliance), Heather Davie (Save Marrickville) and Morris Iemma (Greater Sydney Commissioner).

Also present were Greg Woodhams (ED City Planning GSC), Paul Mortimer (Save Marrickville), Mark Skelsey (Save Dully) and David Birds (Inner West Council Manager Strategic Planning).

Community Reference Group Meeting, East Carrington Rd

Save Marrickville Notes

Date:   Tuesday 1 May, 2018

AGENDA ITEMS

1. Site Tour

- A tour of the East Carrington Site took place at 5:00pm.  Kelsie and Carolyn attended and can update further

1. Adoption of Terms of Reference

- Determined that we would take on notice as we only received the revised Terms of Reference the day prior to meeting.

Non-Agenda Item:  A question was raised about the workshop with Tenants that was held last week. 

- Ross (Chair) stated that the purpose of the workshop was to reassure the businesses of the timeline, and to “myth bust” what would happen then in regard to lease arrangements etc.  The workshop was interactive focusing on the businesses there today and appetite for redeveloped precinct in the future.  They will show outcomes and numbers from that survey when they are ready, however there was a level of interest in terms of staying on the site and the tenants provided information around how plans could enable that.  They received feedback on what business are keen on in terms of access, design, market and customers.

1. Architects overview and urban design process (David Haseler, FJMT)

- David Haseler is the Principle of FJMT – Francis Jones Moreten Thorp) which is a multi-displinary design studio that are interested in the enhancement and contribution to the public realm and includes architecture, interiors, urban design landscape and community (placemaking and engagement).

The way that they approach a design for project:

• Understanding site characteristics, morphology (natural systems, fall of land)
• Place (stories of site and meaning)
• Community (aspirations of community and what is valued).
• Idea (conceptual approach to challenges, guide design through the process to deliver).

How they go about it:

• Analysis (data)
• Design Principles (guide the design through the process; will discuss more in the next session)
• 3D exploration (level changes etc.)
• Design integration (use all skills and disciplines to get best overall outcome

Other Projects by FJMT

The Mint – Sydney Living Museums

The Harrington Collection in The Rocks

Newcastle Museum

Wonderland Apartments – Central Park, Sydney

Inner City High School – Surry Hills

200 George St

Darling Quarter

Marrickville Metro Entrance

East Carrington Rd

- In approaching this project, they have started with the Character of Marrickville based on previous research and discussion from our last workshop.  This was broken out in slides covering:

Impressions of Marrickville:

• It has an inclusive community of people with varied backgrounds.
• It has a strong industrial heritage and embraces a market culture.
• It sees value in and embraces locally sourced goods and is therefore a good place for businesses to start up.
• It has a maker spirit and this is strongly represented in East Carrington Rd.
• It has a passion around sustainability and many initiatives have taken place in Marrickville.

Opportunities for Site:

• Maker Spirit
• Unique Landscape in terms of organic relationship to Cooks River.
• Understand how the natural systems influence the site.
• Connection to transport hubs.
• Build on traditions and character of the Inner West
• Embrace technology, creativity and individuality
• Create a vibrant space and community.

Other:

• Currently it is an island site that creates barriers to the transport hubs. You don’t move through, but move around it.
• FJMT were involved in the previous plan, but want to get more detailed community involvement this time around.
• Carolyn suggested that we share the Save Marrickville Character Report with them.
• A number of people in the group raised heritage concerns and in particular the indigenous heritage of the site and the migrant waves.
• There was a suggestion by Ross that the CRG group could travel to Harold Park/Tramways to see a live environment. 5 hectares were returned to the City of Sydney for parklands.  There are 1300 apartments and up to 8 stories.
• I raised a question about the residential and density aspects of the design process as this was missing from the presentation. Domenic Hunt from Mirvac responded that the number and density of dwellings would depend on the amount of public works that they decided on and therefore how much revenue would need to be raised to pay for it. He explained that the agreement has non negotiable and negotiable aspects:

Non-Negotiable

• must address the flooding and roadwork

Negotiable

• Open Spaces
• Affordable Housing
• Community Facilities.

There are no height restrictions in place.     

1. Forward meeting structure, dates and agenda

• The proposed meeting structure and dates are as follows:

Meeting 3:             9^th May

• Presention and Workshop: Draft urban design principles
• Workshop: Draft landscape design principles (Aspect Studio: Landscape Company).

Meeting 4:                            23^rd May

• Workshop: Traffic, transport and connection.
• Workshop: Social Infrastructure and Community Benefits.

Meeting 5:                            Late June

• Presentation and Workshop: Preliminary design for the revised proposal (at this point we would look at density and height of planned proposal).

- Members of the CRG raised concerns that there was not enough time between meetings to go back to stakeholders and gather responses/concerns/questions.   Ross said that they would review whether they could move meeting 4 out another week (TBC).

A great read about elements of the campaign so far, published by NEIGHBOURHOOD.

Text by Drew Rooke with images by Daniel Mulheran.