Katoomba Charrette Outcomes Report - Blue Mountains City Council

Katoomba Charrette Report & Town Centre Strategy
Be More Proactive, Less Reactive
As a result of past Charrettes, several local governments have also restructured their regulatory
approaches to be much more proactive and less reactive. Compared to before the Charrette,
BMCC and Katoomba now have much clearer plans of action and community support for
Katoomba’s revitalisation, supported by strong rationales and indicative designs, with which to
be more proactive and decisive. Make this change known to the community.
Charrette Design Advisory Service
A Charrette Design Advisory Service should be a key tool in proactively negotiating proposals
into real projects which support Katoomba’s revitalisation. Such a service should be Councilstaffed
and answerable to or advising of the Implementation Task Force (see Section 15). This
service should interact with development proponents and other stakeholders, for both design
revisions and for testing of development feasibility, to help proponents profitably to attain
their Project Design Briefs. Recognising a lack of in-house expertise, the Waitakere City
Council in western Auckland hired Kobus Mentz (a Katoomba Charrette ESD team member
based in Auckland) to lead up this design advisory service and to train their staff to take over
the job, once they had developed adequate skills to do so.
Mandatory Site and Context Analyses
Because virtually all possible projects associated with the Town Centre have adjacent
neighbours, which would be impacted by proposals, it will be important to institute
requirements for mandatory ‘Site and Context Analyses’ as part of any Development
Application for the Town Centre. Designers for proponents should be required to submit early
such an analysis not only of their own site but of adjoining sites that may be impacted. The
City of Newcastle has been using such an approach now for a couple of years with considerable
success in town centre contexts. Refer to their Mixed Use Compatibility Development Control
Plan, written by ESD; BMCC may be able to use the same component of that document.
13.2.3 See Clearly, Think Laterally & Adapt
Despite the apparent clarity of the many indicative Charrette designs, there is no clear path to
revitalising Katoomba. Underlying circumstances of ownership and other redevelopment
dynamics will change. Most development proposals will deviate, for one reason or another,
from the indicative Charrette designs. Some will be better solutions than those of the
Charrette. Some will respond to new or differently understood design and development
criteria. The implementation team will need to discern these differences and respond
accordingly.
Stay In Touch With The Fundamental Revitalisation Objectives
Each new proposal must contribute to Katoomba’s revitalisation. That is the bottom line. The
implementation team and project proponents must understand how their projects will
physically affect Katoomba, in terms of personal and property safety through passive
surveillance, in terms of jobs generation, of raising Katoomba’s image, of impacts to
neighbours, etc. Beware of verbal claims of compliance by project proponents; assess what the
actual built project will do to its context.
The revitalisation objectives must function collectively, like a chain. Sacrificing one link can
weaken the whole system. There will be many contests between alleged project costs and the
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