Strategic review: southern enterprise area

Project Status: Closed

Council approved the enterprise area review planning proposal and amendment to Sydney Development Control Plan 2012 on 16 May 2022. Changes to Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012 and Sydney DCP 2012 were finalised on 30 September 2022 and are now in force.

The City of Sydney Employment Lands Strategy will continue to guide development in the City of Sydney's enterprise areas until an updated strategy is prepared, publicly exhibited and adopted. A new enterprise area strategy will be prepared after the NSW Government completes its review of its employment lands policies.

Gibran Khouri

Specialist Planner

: 02 9265 9774
: [email protected]

The southern enterprise area (formerly known as the southern employment lands) are some of the most strategically located enterprise and economic areas in Australia, being of local, metropolitan, state and national economic significance. They host regional and global roles and connections, being only 3km south of the Sydney city centre and even closer to Sydney Airport and Port Botany.

The area contains 60% of the district’s enterprise zone and business park zoned land and 11% of all industrial and urban services lands in the district – accommodating high-value sectors including transport and logistics, manufacturing, information media, creative services and professional services.

Our employment lands strategy focuses on securing Sydney’s economic future by retaining essential industrial and business-zoned lands and making space for more businesses and new jobs. The strategy also allows for some affordable housing in suitable locations.

We've reviewed the employment lands strategy and the planning controls that apply to the City’s enterprise areas.

The enterprise area review planning proposal, publicly exhibited in late 2021, included appropriate land use and built form controls to facilitate desirable non-residential uses within business park zoned land in North Alexandria. The planning proposal was informed by a separate urban design study for North Alexandria.

These controls were adopted by Council in May 2022 and are now in force.

The NSW Government is currently undertaking significant review of its employment lands policies. Given the shifting policy landscape, it is not appropriate at this time to propose for public exhibition an updated enterprise area strategy until key NSW Government policies have been resolved. The City of Sydney Employment Lands Strategy 2014–2019 will continue to guide development in the City's enterprise areas until an updated strategy is prepared, publicly exhibited and approved by Council.

Late-2021 consultation

Between 15 November 2021 to 13 December 2021 we sought your views on the draft Planning Proposal and draft development control plan for the North Alexandria precinct. Contributions to that consultation are closed. The information below is for historical purposes only.

We’re proposing changes to the planning controls in the southern enterprise areas. The proposed changes mostly affect the North Alexandria precinct, but some others apply to the whole area.

The proposed planning controls will:
- increase on some sites the community infrastructure floor space available in the precinct, creating an additional 26,500sqm of floor space for business and employment
- increase the maximum height on some site while maintaining a careful transition from the tall buildings in the Green Square town centre to the fine grain heritage buildings in the north of the precinct
- provide diversity in the built form that will support a range of economic activities including industrial, commercial, office, entertainment, creative industries, urban services and affordable spaces for innovation
- encourage the dedication of land for roads, through site links and setbacks to improve connections through the precinct to public transport and other areas to encourage day/night activation.
Other changes are proposed in the wider area to future roads and public spaces.

This consultation includes a planning proposal to amend the Sydney Local Environmental Plan 2012, and a draft development control plan to amend the Sydney Development Control Plan 2012.
Planning proposal contains the background, objectives, explanation and justification of the draft controls. These relate to revised maximum building heights and maximum community infrastructure floor-space ratio controls in North Alexandria. The proposed planning controls enable a cohesive built form, transitioning from tall commercial office buildings at Green Square town centre, to the low rise adaptively reused industrial warehouse spaces to the north and mid-rise flexible spaces in between.

Draft development control plan contains height in storeys, upper level setback and ground floor setback provisions that will facilitate a smooth transition in heights, bulk and scale across north Alexandria. Proposed land dedications support enhanced public domain outcomes. It also covers heritage conservation, built form and design, active frontages and street level tenancy design, street cross sections and updated locality statements. It proposes various changes to provisions, maps and figures to amend existing or introduce new setbacks, active frontages, new streets and lanes, and continuous awnings in the broader southern enterprise area.