Katoomba Charrette Outcomes Report - Blue Mountains City Council

Katoomba Charrette Report & Town Centre Strategy
urban amenity and identity of the Town Centre. A glaring case in point is the Coles
supermarket ‘frontage’ along the corner of Waratah and Parke Streets.
The present Town Centre Zone in the 1987 Local Environmental Plan (LEP) is too large,
extending beyond the core of the Town Centre, thereby allowing commercial development
which might actually weaken the actual Town Centre. The edge of the zone in the centre line
of Parke Street has encouraged commercial development on the east side, which in many cases
is not compatible with the residential development on the West side.
Regulations generally have not encouraged compatibly mixed use development in the Town
Centre, and instead have led in some cases to development uncertainty, as with the Gateway
Shopping Centre proposal explained below.
4.2.4 Gateway Shopping Centre Proposal is a Symptom of these Problems
The Gateway site is a group of adjoining properties at the northern ‘dog leg’ on the western
side of Parke Street at the roundabout with Main Street. The present Local Environmental Plan
allows the Gateway Site to be developed as an enclosed shopping centre, which, if it were built,
would jeopardise the viability of the Town Centre (see Section 7.8.1 for further details). While
that development application has been in and out of the City Offices of late, no one can be
sure what will become of the Gateway site. Such major uncertainties discourage other
developers or existing businesses from moving forward on other initiatives which might
benefit the Town, because, for example, they might be overwhelmed by the Gateway Shopping
Centre if constructed.
The talk around town for many years of a new supermarket and the possibility of its going
either to the extreme north or extreme south end of the Town Centre has reportedly created
such uncertainty that retailers have been unable or unwilling to plan or position themselves for
the future. Thus even the uncertainty has disadvantaged existing businesses.
The progressive decline of the Town Centre, hampered by difficult regulations and resultant
unknowns, seem to have trapped the Town Centre in a ‘Catch 22’.
4.3 Urban Structure : Great Potential, But too Many Holes, Barriers &
Bypasses
4.3.1 Introduction
What do we mean by urban structure, and why bother with it ‘Urban structure’ means how
buildings, streets and open spaces are assembled; it governs our behaviour; it can make or
break a town. Just as a room without doors and windows becomes a prison, a town without
good access does the same. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the urban
structure of a place, we can propose private developments and changes to the public realm
which will incrementally improve how the place works, and how we can flourish within it.
This section explains the assets and problems in the urban structure of Katoomba.
12