Planning Proposal – 22 Winbourne Street, West Ryde

The Planning Proposal – 22 Winbourne Street, West Ryde was tabled at Council meeting on 23 August 2022. Council resolved to extend the public exhibition period of the Planning Proposal – 22 Winbourne Street, West Ryde to Monday 19 September 2022.

Council is seeking community comment on a Planning Proposal to amend the Ryde Local Environmental Plan (Ryde LEP) 2014 for land (known as Marsden High School) at 22 Winbourne Street, West Ryde. The Proposal seeks to rezone the land from SP2 (Educational Establishment) to Part RE1 Public Recreation and Part C2 Environmental Conservation under the Ryde LEP 2014.

The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) issued a Gateway Determination in July 2022 for the Planning Proposal to proceed to public exhibition for a minimum of 20 working days. Council has been given delegation to exhibit the Planning Proposal as the Planning Proposal Authority but does not have the authority to make the plan. 

The Planning Proposal is on exhibition from Monday 01 August to Monday 19 September 2022 for community comment. 

The site was formerly Marsden High School which has been relocated to the Meadowbank Education and Employment Precinct. It is proposed that the zoning be changed to allow the site to be used for public recreation to help address the significant community need for formal active recreation spaces.

If the rezoning proceeds, it is likely that it will facilitate a proposed relocation of the existing netball courts at Meadowbank to the site (subject to a future development application). The existing 28 netball courts at Meadowbank would be relocated to the subject site to create 32 outdoor netball courts and an indoor facility comprising 4 courts and ancillary uses. Please note that the exact number of courts would be subject to a future development application. The planning proposal currently on exhibition does not seek to approve the design, configuration, or size of the facility, which would all be subject to a separate assessment process.

Rezoning part of the site identified as having high biodiversity value to C2 Environmental Conservation is intended to protect high value biodiversity vegetation. The vegetation community is Blue Gum High Forest, a Critically Endangered Ecological Community listed under both the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.