Written by
9/12/2023
Orchard Hills is identified as a priority urban release area in the short term, meaning precinct planning will be undertaken within 1 to 5 years.
The focus of strategic planning efforts within Orchard Hills is to rezone land to support a new mixed-use centre, which will capitalise on the new Metro Station and provide diverse housing, supporting infrastructure, new employment opportunities, retail and local services, and support the Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan.
The local community have been awaiting anxiously throughout 2023 for the draft precinct plan and rezoning package for Orchard Hills to be put on public exhibition. An announcement early last week was released by the planning department indicating that the rezoning documents won’t be released until probably Q1 of 2024.
The reason for the delay is due to a range of technical studies and investigations being undertaken. Until the outcome of those studies have been finalised, rezoning documents will not be released. In particular, the planning department fairly recently received advice from the Commonwealth Department of Defence that there may be per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances present in part of the precinct study area. The revised exhibition timing allows for soil and water testing to be completed to understand the impact, if any, for land use planning.
Orchard Hills investigation area
Consultants have been engaged to undertake soil and water testing within the precinct to understand these issues in more detail. Soil and water testing will take place in December 2023 and January 2024. Most of the testing will occur on publicly owned land, including road verges and on land owned or controlled by different public authorities (e.g. Sydney Metro and Penrith Council). There are a small number of private properties that will also be used for testing locations.
Once the contamination testing results have been analysed, the department will review the draft precinct planning work completed to date to identify what changes, if any, need to be made to the draft precinct package to respond to the contamination assessment.
Prior to exhibition, the planning department will continue to work with Penrith Council and other government agencies around the availability of infrastructure and services and finalise technical reports before the initial rezoning boundary can be confirmed.
For more info on the precinct planning work in Orchard Hills, you can email the project team direct at [email protected].
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