Paddington Greenway

The Paddington Greenway – a pedestrian and cycling path through White City, Paddington that would link Darlinghurst to Woollahra.

Below are some progress updates on this proposal:

Sep 2019

City of Sydney has also provided support for the project in this month’s council motion.

Two UTS students – Chrissie Kirkwood and Fergus Barker – were interviewed on Eastside Radio about their landscape designs for Rushcutters Creek.  The students did a great job in describing their vision, benefits and current status of the project.  The audio interview runs for just over 28mins.

Jul 2019

SMH: Sydney eyes off stormwater system in search for green space (July 14, 2019)

Update: The motion was moved unanimously by Woollahra Council!  Onto funding!  Also, see Member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich’s questions to Parliament re: Rushcutters Creek Riparian Corridors.

We encourage the community to write to Woollahra Councillors with letters of support.

At the Woollahra Council Meeting on Mon 8 July 2019 – Councillors Megan McEwin and Matthew Robertson are moving that Council:

A. Notes:

  1. that pedestrian and cyclist access was a condition of any development on the former White City site according to section 4.6 of the White City Development and Control Plan 2007 and Paddington locals are still calling for pedestrian and cycling access through this site;
  2. the recent presentation by UTS students demonstrating how pedestrian and cyclist access alongside Rushcutters Bay creek and the naturalisation of the creek could be done;
  3. the various State Utility owners of the creek and the land surrounding the creek, including Woollahra Council, Sydney Water, Rail Corp and various easements around the creek;
  4. the large grassed area underneath the railway viaduct near Nield Avenue which is owned by Rail Corp;
  5. the Sydney Green Grid, which is an integral part of the Greater Sydney Region and Central District Plans which have objectives to ‘renature’ waterways and provide green corridors. These Plans also acknowledge green space as a key hallmark of liveability in urban areas;
  6. that a pedestrian and cyclist path on and/or alongside Rushcutters Creek and naturalisation of the creek would add to the Sydney Green Grid by providing a green corridor from Rushcutters park to Woollahra and enable locals to walk or cycle from Nield Avenue, Darlinghurst to Jersey Road, Woollahra while only crossing one road (Glenmore Road);
  7. the recent announcement that the state’s Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes plans to create half a billion dollars of public value from his $150 million budget to increase open space in Sydney by buying up forgotten land across Sydney to create new parks and playgrounds, linkages between green space, and cycleways to meet the needs of the growing population;
  8. the more recent announcement by the NSW Government of a $340 million Open Spaces and Greener Sydney package intended to support Councils to deliver more green open spaces that are easily accessible to residents; and
  9. the creation of a greenway through the former White City site would create a new green, open space and corridor easily accessible to the highly populated areas of East
    Darlinghurst, North Paddington and Edgecliff where most residents live in apartments
    or terrace houses with little or no outdoor space.

B. Writes to the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Rob Stokes, seeking support and
funding to create a Paddington Greenway – pedestrian and bike path, new park and/or
naturalised creek – along the Rushcutters Creek corridor on the former White City and Sydney Stadium land.

C. Separately engages with the City of Sydney to work together on this project given that the Paddington Greenway would go right up to the border of both Councils and would be of benefit to City of Sydney residents as well as Woollahra LGA residents.

Posted in BIKEast.