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Project update

A draft City Heart Plan was delivered by consultants MGS Architects in August 2023. The draft Plan builds on the successful community consultation undertaken that tested the ideas in the City Heart Concepts report. The draft Plan represents a significant milestone for the project.

Work on the City Heart Plan recommenced early in 2024, following a temporary pause while council and the community explored the opportunity to house the AFL High Performance Centre within Rosny. Now that the Parklands and Charles Hand Park have been identified as the preferred site for the High Performance Centre, by the State, Officers have commenced work to understand how this development opportunity sits within the City Heart Plan, and are now working to bring the plan to final community consultation.

Adoption of the City Heart Plan is now likely to be considered by Council in Q1 2024-25 / Q2 2024-25.

Clarence City Heart Concepts Report - (consultation report now available)

The Concepts report provides ideas for strategic sites within the City Heart area including the parklands, council owned car parks and the civic and employment hub. We have received feedback from the community and stakeholders which is now being considered in the drafting of the plan. An engagement report can be found here to read the consolidated feedback we received on all aspects of the draft plan.

Summary feedback (including the n=159 survey responses)

• We gathered feedback from across the full range of engagement activities and from very diverse audiences. Overall, there was a strong degree of support for the Key Concepts report identified principles and all the specific elements.
• Positive feedback was evident for the key idea of precincts within the City Heart area. For some this was reassuring that existing strengths of the area will be retained and celebrated, such as Bellerive For others, the precincts help to highlight key weaknesses and signal an intent for change and improvement, including the employment precinct highlighting the need for increased office space as well as the focus on diverse housing.
• Across previous stages of City Heart, the open space network has generated the most interest. Both the proposed principles and specific ideas for the open space network were well received. The re-wilding elements and connections were especially well liked. Critically, most (7 in 10) felt they would visit the parklands more often after changes. Our younger contributors especially liked the play and wild park spaces.
• The proposed mixed uses for carparks also has strong overall support across each of the sites. There is concern about the increased pressure on parking due to the ferry.
• The Civic and Employment precinct also has strong support overall. Especially liked are the connections and new open spaces, but also the focus on new spaces to meet the changing needs. There was feedback from young people about the desire for dedicated youth spaces.
• Bligh Street corridor received strong approval across all elements. Comments were positive from within and outside Warrane. Some feedback suggested that links are also needed to outside project area for the active transport element to be fully realised.
• Non-council owned strategic sites and their ideas were also well received, especially Eastlands and Kangaroo Bay.
• Overall, there was excitement about the possibilities across the key concepts. Some are concerned that it might not progress and there is still strong interest and a desire for clarity and progress on the Kangaroo Bay Site.
• The strong consistent positive community sentiment at this stage of the project is promising and we expect strong interest from the community in providing feedback on the Draft Plan in the next stage.

Next steps for the City Heart project:

• Development of the Preliminary City Heart Plan (in consideration of the feedback received from the community to the Concepts Report)
• Final consultation: Preliminary City Heart Plan expected to occur in June-July (delayed with dates to come)
• Final Draft City Heart Plan expected to be developed and presented to the Council for adoption in August 2023 (delayed with dates to come)

Project Background

The City of Clarence is growing, and as we grow, it’s important to plan for a successful and inclusive future together.

The City Heart Plan will help shape change in and around our principal activity centre. This will be a long-term shared vision and framework, developed with community involvement. It will consider future needs for community infrastructure, housing, open space, access and movement, commercial development and activities.

The Plan is being developed by a multi-disciplinary team led by MGS Architects, in consultation with stakeholders and the Clarence community. It aims to ensure that developments are coordinated and that decision making contributes to a more liveable, accessible, inclusive, healthy, and thriving future.

The Analysis and Key Directions reportwas released in December 2022. It proposed design principles, key directions and strategic opportunities, and is the evidence base for the concepts and plan.

If you live, work, play, learn or shop in Clarence’s activity hub, we invite your ongoing involvement to ensure your voice is part of the plan. There will be several opportunities to get involved and share thoughts and ideas.

The project area includes Rosny Park CBD and surrounding places including Kangaroo Bay, Sheoak Point, Rosny Farm, Bellerive Village, Charles Hand Park, Kangaroo Bay Rivulet and Rosny Parkland.

Have Your Say

Some of the key ways the community had their say:

• Reading the Clarence City Heart Concepts report and providing feedback via the survey.
• Attending the Future Forum 2. Read 'what was said' here and watch the highlights here(External link).
• Attending our webinar. The recording is in the video folder and gives an overview of the Key Concepts.
• The current engagement period was open for seven weeks from March 17 to May 8 2023 and is now closed. Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback and ideas.
• The latest consultation report is now available in the document library. Read what we heard here.

CLOSED: This survey has concluded.

City Heart Concepts Feedback

Thank you for taking part in this survey to provide your thoughts on the key concepts developed for the City Heart Plan. Please read the Clarence City Heart Concepts report (in the documents folder or click here) as this survey is designed to directly ask your thoughts on elements of the report. We will start with overall impressions of the precincts and then give opportunities to comment on individual concepts.

The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete, depending on your answers.

We will ask some structured questions and provide opportunities to share your reasons. Lastly, we will ask a few general questions about you.

We are looking for frank and honest answers. We assure you that your responses will be kept strictly confidential and data will be reported in an aggregated form that will not identify you.

CLOSED: This survey has concluded.

City Heart Plan: Key Ideas

To start with we would like to hear your thoughts on some priorities. These themes were identified as important in the earlier stage of community engagement 'City Heart Report by Timmins Ray' and current and as emerging issues and opportunities.