Macquarie Park. New phase likely

Macquarie Park, one of Sydney’s largest suburban commercial markets, is poised to enter a new phase of staggered growth underpinned by select precommitted developments, which has the potential to drive down vacancy and help pull up rents, Mathew Lee, senior director, industrial and logistics services, at CBRE, in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Region. 24-hour trading

The Minister for Planning, Brad Hazzard, proposes to permit shops and restaurants to stay open 24 hours a day in the two weeks before Christmas as part of a plan to reinvigorate the state’s retial economy. Under the proposed reforms, restaurants will also receive automatic approval for outdoor dining areas – of up to 20 tables – without having to submit expensive and time-consuming applications with their local councils, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Region. Industrial reform planned

Under proposed planning reforms, the Minister for Planning, Brad Hazzard, will allow factories and warehouses of up 20,000 square metres to be approved within 10 days in the developments are to built on sites already zoned as “industrial”. The Sunday Telegraph reported that mr Hazzard expected this to be increased to up to 90,000 square metres if the changes proved successful.

Penrith. Five rowing events

The Sydney International Rowing Regatta, to be held on March 18-24, 2013, is expected to draw huge crowds to the International Regatta Centre at Penrith. The regatta will include first of next year’s Samsung World Rowing Cup regattas, the Australian Open Championships, the King’s Cup and Queen’s Cup Interstate Regatta and the Australian Open Schools Rowing Championships. The regatta is expected to attract entrants from rowing’s power base in Europe and North America and also the Asia-Pacific region.

Region. Need for separate group

The Western Sydney regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) urges the government to expand its definition of regional Australia to include the outskirts of major cities, such as Western Sydney. With a significant peri-urban agricultural industry and associated food processing and manufacturing jobs in the urban areas – the industry is worth over $1.5 billion to the NSW economy and provides almost 22,000 local jobs in primary production and food processing – Western Sydney should be defined as its own region and have a separate government-funded Regional Development Australia (RDA) to promote its interest and identity.

Region. Infrastructure shortfalls

Blacktown City Council is currently facing a shortfall of $45 million in providing critical infrastructure – roads, guttering, open spaces – in order to support the current land releases in the North West Growth sector, while Liverpool City Council is facing a shortfall of around $30 million for the South West growth sector.

Region. Loss of GRP

With the population of Western Sydney expected to grow to 4 million by 2050 (from a total Sydney population of 7 million), there is an imperative to plan and supply sufficient employment lands in this area of high growth., according to St George Bank. The cost of not doing this is estimated to be as much as $84 billion in GRP by 2036.