Sydney: City of Dreams
Many minds met to devise the Sustainable Sydney 2030 plans, unveiled this week. But the dream has been helmed by one woman: Lord Mayor Clover Moore
Our Lord Mayor has the keys to the city of tomorrow
Imagine a city where people are more important than cars. Imagine a city where the centre is reconnected with its stunning harbour and imagine that sustainability underpins the way Sydney does business.
We know great things don’t happen unless they are planned. The creation of Martin Place as a civic plaza and Pitt Street Mall as a pedestrian strip only happened as a result of the Council’s last major strategic plan in the 1970s and 80s. But they did happen.
On the same day Time Out launches their Future Sydney series, the City of Sydney is announcing Sustainable Sydney 2030 – a visionary plan responding to 12 months of community consultation.
We’ve met with more than 4,000 people at over 30 community forms, round-table discussions, business forums and City Talks; received in excess of 15,000 visitors through our website; and received more than 2,000 comments through the Future Phone. This feedback has become Sustainable Sydney 2030.
The City of Sydney alone – occupying an area of just 26 square kilometres of this vast continent – accounts for almost one-twelfth of Australia’s total economy, and one-quarter that of NSW.
It is where the wealth, and the future, of Australia lies. Already, 20 per cent of all new residential development in greater Sydney occurs within the City, and that trend will only continue. In next generation, the City’s resident population will rise by 70,000 people, its workforce by another 90,000.
The people of Sydney have told us they want a city that is green, global and connected. They want a city that is sustainable environmentally, socially and culturally. Over 97 per cent of people told us they want global warming addressed by the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. They want a City for people that celebrates Sydney’s climate, natural beauty and open spaces, and is easy to move around, by public transport, bike or on foot.
Sydney can become internationally recognised as an environmental leader which has sustainable development, sustainable transport and green energy providers. We can establish a new, cleaner, efficient power generation in the city and its surrounds to reduce dependency on coal-fired electricity and shift to sustainable low carbon energy.
Sydney can continue as Australia’s global business and cultural centre of excellence. We can create an Indigenous Art Centre and support contemporary creative culture.
In the future we can bury the Western Distributor to better connect the City Centre with its western waterfront and create new, people-focused development. We can create major new parklands at Darling Harbour by relocating the Entertainment Centre and Convention Centre as we look for new uses for the airspace over Central’s railway tracks.
And Sydney can be connected by developing an integrated transport network which focuses on walking, cycling, light rail and car share, and which connects with our harbour and three proposed major squares.
Based on recommendations from Danish architect Jan Gehl’s work, the three City Squares would create activity at Central Railway Station around a convention and exhibition square, a new civic square at Sydney Town Hall and a cultural square linking the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Opera House at Circular Quay.
Sustainable Sydney 2030 provides a vision for the future that can work across the three tiers of Government. It proposes a partnership to achieve the vision the community demands.
Just as the industrial revolution drove the growth of cities, we need a green revolution to make our cities sustainable. But where the industrial revolution brought pollution, congestion and depletion of our resources along with increasing prosperity, a green revolution will bring more efficient and sustainable use of land, water and energy and create public domains which actively contribute to health and wellbeing. The green economy will ensure our cities continue to thrive.
Sydney already has one outstanding opportunity to showcase its aspirations for the future. This comes at Green Square, the largest urban renewal project in Australia – 278 hectares of former industrial and warehouse land just south of the CBD, adjacent to the airport and now due for redevelopment.
The name was in place long before global warming became an issue, but it provides us with a chance to make that name resonate by giving the redevelopment a truly green identity.
Already the plans are to implement the lessons learned elsewhere in the City about sustainable transport, water capture and re-use, and six-star equivalent public buildings.
I congratulate Time Out Sydney for taking a lead in talking about Sydney’s future and encourage all of you to visit sydney2030.com.au and the Sustainable Sydney 2030 exhibition at Customs House from April 17 to be part of a better Sydney.
Lord Mayor, Clover Moore MP