Katoomba Charrette Outcomes Report - Blue Mountains City Council

Katoomba Charrette Report & Town Centre Strategy
each dwelling should be limited to a one-car garage per dwelling, whose garage should be
set back at least one metre from the face of the building and 5.5 m back from the front of
the front garden (to allow a second car parked in tandem out front). The non-garage parts
of the dwellings may project to within 2 metres of the front of the front garden, and
verandahs could extend the whole way to the front of the front garden, for up to 50% of the
dwelling frontage. No guest parking should be required, as guests could park in the street
or in existing parking for the TAFE, which is usually close to empty overnight;
each dwelling should have windows onto the street or accessway;
each dwelling should have at least 8 sqm of private open space, either in a courtyard
and/or balconies.
Action 10.4 A - Consult with TAFE to develop a concept for the future use of these facilities
as an expanded Arts-related focus, and/or to re-locate some activities to the Renaissance
Centre.
Action 10.4 B- Implement this residential development as per its Project Design Brief.
10.5 Kingsford Smith Park Refurbishment and Additions
Despite its proximity to the Town Centre, Kingsford Smith Park is loved by many, but used by few.
Because the park is in a deep hollow, walking to it from the adjoining streets above is quite strenuous.
Yet virtually all stakeholders in the Charrette were determined to find ways to make the park a safer,
better and more heavily used asset to the Town Centre, as it has been in the past.
The park is historically significant in part because of its design by Paul Sorensen, a prominent Sydney
landscape architect from the turn of the Century (Paul Grimson to elaborate, please, as appropriate)
The original planting scheme is now very mature and in some cases huge trees on the steep land slipprone
slopes may be dangerous.
The park is currently established as an amphitheatre focussed on a 1960’s stage, now covered with
graffiti and making the whole of the park feel derelict. This use of the park now needs review.
Toilets are located on the southern entry off Vale Street, but are now so covered with graffiti and
overgrown with vegetation that many would-be users are now deterred.
10.5.1 Inter-Related Problems
As explained in Section 4.4.6, Kingsford Smith Park suffers from an inter-related set of
problems including lack of use, vandalism, lack of passive surveillance from adjoining
properties, overgrown bush, and deteriorated access paths. The switch-back paths up to
Lurline Street have deteriorated and a recent land slip has made matters much worse.
Safety and Surveillance
This park cannot feel safe, especially at night, when there is little or no activity within it, when
there are not guards or caretakers, and when no one lives close-by, who could thereby see into
the park to report misbehaviour. Even the nearby residences on the northern slope cannot see
into the park well because the trees have become quite bushy. Historic photographs of the
park show a much less bushy condition, where one can see from one slope of the park clearly
across to the other.
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