Wollongong City Council is seeking community feedback on a comprehensive plan to revitalise the city centre, with proposed changes to planning controls aimed at creating a vibrant, well-designed sustainable CBD now on exhibition.
The City Centre Planning Review proposes amendments to the Wollongong Local Environment Plan (LEP), updates to a key chapter of the Development Control Plan (DCP), and changes to the City-Wide Development Contributions Plan.
Together, the proposed changes and revisions support the objectives of Council's adopted strategies related to tourism and economic development, transport and pedestrian access, events and nighttime economy, sustainability, and housing within the CBD.
Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown said the suite of documents on exhibition have been several years in the making and will ensure planning controls align with Council's broader goals for the CBD.
"Since adopting our City Centre Urban Design Framework back in 2020 we've taken the time to develop a number of important plans and strategies that relate to different priorities for the city centre," Cr Brown said.
"We're taking a precinct-based approach to capitalise on the natural and built assets of our CBD. It cuts across several areas, from tourism development to commercial and office space, efforts to support our hospitality and events sector and nighttime economy, road and pedestrian infrastructure, housing, and sustainability goals.
"We're doing a lot of exciting things in all these areas to revitalise our CBD and it's vitally important that those efforts are underpinned by effective and well-considered planning so that development meets the needs of our community while unlocking the lifestyle and economic potential of our city centre.
"I encourage the community to take the time to provide feedback to inform the steps we take to realise our shared vision for a vibrant, sustainable and thriving CBD."
Proposed amendments to the Wollongong LEP are outlined in a Planning Proposal that has been granted a Gateway Determination for public exhibition from the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.
Measures proposed include a number of revisions, including:
- Adjusting the boundaries of the E2 Commercial centre and MU1 Mixed Use zones.
- No longer requiring ground floor retail uses in the MU1 Mixed use zone.
- Requiring the retention of employment-generating commercial space.
- Providing height and floorspace bonuses for tourism and entertainment developments (like cinemas) provided the developments demonstrate design excellence.
Draft updates to the Wollongong City-Wide Development Contributions Plan are designed to encourage new commercial office developments by reducing contributions from two to one per cent, and deferral of payment from construction certificate to occupation certificate stage for projects with estimated costs of $20 million or more.
These measures are already in place for 5-star or equivalent hotel developments in the CBD, with the proposed extension to commercial developments aimed at incentivising employment generation and increasing available office space in the city centre.
A revised Chapter D13 of the Wollongong DCP provides clearer more detailed guidance for development applications, including new controls for urban design and new sustainability requirements, including a staged transition to fully electric buildings.
The exhibition period runs until 6 July. Following the exhibition period a report will be prepared for Council's further consideration to support the finalisation and adoption of the proposed amendments.
The Wollongong City Centre Planning Review documents are available to view and provide feedback via Council's website .
The suite of documents is also available at Wollongong Library during operating hours and at Council's Customer Service Centre on the ground floor of our administration building between 9am and 5pm weekdays.
