The Minns Labor Government has finalised the rezoning of 33 hectares of the Parramatta North precinct and will invest $124.5 million to power its transformation into a thriving, mixed-use community adjacent to one of Australia’s most important heritage sites.
The rezoning will create a vibrant new community that celebrates its nationally significant heritage and will establish new social and cultural assets, alongside housing, commercial, innovation and education facilities.
The Parramatta North transformation is another step in the Minns Labor Government’s plan to address Sydney’s housing supply challenge, by creating opportunities to build new homes close to public transport, jobs, and essential services, while creating vibrant communities where people can live, work, and thrive.
Situated along the new Parramatta Light Rail corridor and serviced by both the Ngara and the Children’s Hospital stops, the precinct has easy access to the Parramatta CBD and the Westmead Health and Innovation District, with direct and fast connections to the wider Sydney Metro system.
A revitalised Parramatta North will deliver a range of social, community and economic outcomes.
Key features of the rezoning include:
- around 2,000 new homes, including at least 100 affordable homes
- a mix of building types ranging from two to 23 storeys, scaled sensitively in response to their natural and heritage environments
- up to 12,000 potential new jobs across health services, research, education and supporting industries
- provisions for a new university campus to support the Westmead Health and Innovation District
- new and enhanced multipurpose community facilities, including an upgraded heritage-listed recreational hall, a new First Nations pavilion adjacent to a natural riverside play space, and enhanced spectator and user amenities alongside the Green
- up to 10 hectares of public open space, including sports fields, extended riverside pathways, parks and gardens, plazas and play spaces
- a Country-centred approach to landscape design through enhanced riparian corridors, replacing native species, water-sensitive urban design and natural play spaces.
The finalised rezoning carefully balances the need for additional housing and complementary uses including tertiary education, commercial and retail, alongside the cultural history and important national heritage of Parramatta North.
Buildings with high or exceptional heritage significance will be conserved, while the number of buildings and their heights have been reduced next to the Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct.
Over the next four years, underutilised government-owned land will be progressively released for housing, jobs, and mixed-use development, driving new economic activity across the region.
The staged development will ensure the site grows into a well-serviced destination that respects its significant cultural heritage, including Aboriginal peoples’ connections and significant buildings.
For information on the Parramatta North rezoning, please visit the NSW Planning Portal.
For information about the investment in the Parramatta North precinct, please visit Property and Development NSW.
Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns said:
“This is a great opportunity to create a new community that delivers for the people of Western Sydney while protecting and celebrating one of Australia’s most significant heritage sites.
“We want a city where people can afford to live, where young people have the opportunity to stay close to their families and communities, and where working people aren’t locked out of the city they helped build.”
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said:
“Good neighbourhoods don’t happen by accident; they are built through a combination of careful planning and the right infrastructure.
“This ambitious rezoning proposal sets Parramatta North up to become a well-connected, vibrant precinct for thousands more Sydneysiders to call home.
“We’re delivering the homes, jobs and open space our growing community needs while retaining Parramatta’s cultural heritage at the heart of this precinct.”
Minister for Lands and Property Steve Kamper said:
“Our $125 million investment is the next step in the opportunity to reshape the Parramatta North precinct into a well-connected, mixed-use community.
“By bringing together heritage, open space, employment and new development, the NSW Government is shaping a place of connection and renewal that honours Parramatta North’s past while building a better future for Western Sydney.
“The new Parramatta North community will stitch together the bustling Parramatta CBD with the Westmead Health and Innovation Precinct, finally combining these economic and job centres to establish Sydney’s new ‘Central River City’ that has long been proposed, but not delivered until now.”
Member for Parramatta Donna Davis said:
“This is a great outcome for our local community.
“As a result of extensive community consultation, we will get 10 hectares of public open space, parks and gardens.
“We are committed to maintaining the 6-hectare Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct in Government ownership and it is not included in the rezoning.
“The approved master plan and rezoning have reduced the number and scale of building adjacent to the precinct, opening sightlines and vistas to and from the heritage buildings.
“I look forward to working with the community as this project unfolds.
“Together, we will create a place where people can live, visit, work and enjoy all that Parramatta has to offer.”
