Parramatta Road is a sewer for cars: Here’s how to change it

Whatever you think of Premier Chris Minns’ “war on red tape” as he tries to get more homes built, I give him an A for effort. His energy can’t be faulted. Whether his efforts include wisdom will be tested on a battlefield that has seen defeats of previous warriors for change in Sydney: Parramatta Road, aka Sydney’s 23-kilometre Great Sewer for Cars. Or as urbanists think of it, this big “stroad” – an incoherent mix of street and road, which has sacrificed retail and urban amenity for the communities along it in favour of speeding commuters.

I have already fallen in this war for urban change. Having advised British ministers on urban renewal, I worked on schemes for Parramatta Road with UrbanGrowth NSW, the agency created in 2013 to transform Sydney. Nothing came of this.

WestConnex was then supposed to solve Parramatta Road’s traffic problems, enabling a reduction in traffic and speeds along it, vital to renewal. The new road came; the old sewer remained. Business as usual for Sydney.

As Committee for Sydney CEO until 2017, I launched intermittent sorties to “solve” Parramatta Road. No success. Over the years, the Herald filled with civic eloquence about the potential of our great West Way followed by inertia on the ground. Poor old Parramatta Road – poor old Sydney.

Now (drum roll), Minns takes up arms in the latest battle, with rezoning to allow for 8000 new homes for Parramatta Road – or a 3.5-kilometre part of it between Camperdown and Leichhardt – a narrow geographical focus grounded in a “coalition of the willing”, limited in this instance to the government and the Labor-friendly Inner West Council.

Will this partnership be the city-shaping initiative needed, providing much-needed housing close to the Sydney CBD while catalysing economic renewal along this tired thoroughfare that was once a magnet for jobs and services? Will it turbocharge a rebirth of vibrant community activity, not just in this small part of Parramatta Road but also, as the Barcelona mayor says of her city’s plans, “fill the streets with life” in surrounding areas?

I have doubts.

First, the good stuff. The ambition is exemplary. Partnership between state and local government, ditto. New higher-density housing is welcome, but the devil will be in the design details and whether housing numbers come at the expense of quality of the places in which they are built.

The stated 8000 homes should allow for a significant proportion of them being guaranteed as “affordable”, although the rhetoric of the Minns-Inner West concordat is tentative about this. My experience suggests they need to be more ambitious and issue a directive that at least 10 per cent be permanently affordable units. By making this requirement clear now, developers and landowners can factor these costs into land deals, not pass them on to end consumers or damaging development viability. Developers bank on clarity and firm direction from governments.

Rezoning alone isn’t enough. Governments have magical beliefs that it delivers masses of new homes at reduced prices, when it’s clear that delivery in Sydney is slower than expected. If anything is going up because of generous rezoning, it’s land values. Government investment in infrastructure alongside rezoning is required on Parramatta Road to optimise housing and renewal outcomes.

Confining proposals to part of Parramatta Road and to housing won’t renew the corridor, either. It can only become Sydney’s central boulevard through a wider geographical focus and a broader vision: a commitment to mass transport and to ensuring not merely more homes but also better places with stronger communities. UrbanGrowth NSW envisaged this, as does a recent Committee for Sydney report, Reclaiming Parramatta Road.

Success means seeing all of Parramatta Road as Parramatta Street, a series of connected urban villages where people stop, shop and mingle, not pass through at 60km/h. It needs more pedestrian crossings and cycle lanes, encouraging walkable neighbourhoods and greater connectedness across the road. The 8000 homes should limit car spaces and focus on car-sharing and mass and active transport – supporting greater bus, cycle use and walkability in the corridor.

Just pouring 8000 units into part of this corridor won’t make it “vibrant”, only more congested. Existing transit capacity is insufficient to absorb them. The government and council’s joint announcement suggests existing transit capacity is sufficient, merely stating that “throughout the rezoning process, active transport connections” will be examined. Examined? That won’t cut the mustard. Come on, energetic Premier Minns: raise your team’s sights.

Be radical on traffic management and the transport infrastructure needed to match your housing ambition. Reduce car speeds and car numbers on Parramatta Road. Internationally, traffic-calming measures and congestion-charging work: do this. When WestConnex was mooted, I suggested it be free but charge instead to drive down Parramatta Road. Counterintuitive? Maybe not the answer, but it was meant to provoke new thinking. Only radicalism will renew Parramatta Road.

Light rail turned the CBD’s George Street from a commercial liability to a global asset, creating Australia’s most walkable boulevard. Do something similar on Parramatta Road, with the support of councils along it such as the City of Sydney.

Who pays? Rezoning makes millionaires. Premier, tell beneficiaries – landowners and developers – of the value you are creating. The community wants its share of that uplift in property values to fund vital infrastructure. It’s fair, sensible, popular and bold. Like you.

Tim Williams is an adviser on urban development and a former CEO of the Committee for Sydney.

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