Katoomba Charrette Outcomes Report - Blue Mountains City Council

Katoomba Charrette Report & Town Centre Strategy
feasible approach for helping to develop the Cultural/Visitors Centre and car park.
The three indicative designs below all reflect this joint-development approach. The designs
investigated how adjoining sites could be co-developed to make a large enough site to make
the joint use project more feasible to develop. All three designs incorporate a cinema
complex, a use for which there is reportedly a market. A cinema complex also would need a
lot of parking, but mostly in the evenings, ‘off-peak’ to the mostly daytime use of the
Cultural/Visitors Centre and bus use to Echo Point. This means a smaller amount of total
parking capacity could be shared by both uses. In all three designs, the cinema complex is
wrapped or ‘sleeved’ by commercial premises, so that it presents no blank walls to the streets
surrounding the site.
Since the Charrette, the feasibility of a cinema complex has reportedly diminished, due to other
similar proposals within the sub-region. Therefore, this cinema component in all three
designs may need to be re-considered. However, a market may still exist for a ‘Timezone’ type
entertainment complex in this project.
Three Design Options
Three design options were prepared (each including the Cultural/Visitors Centre) to show the
results of various site assembly, use scenarios and car parking capacities. Option A keeps the
Old TAFE Building, uses all three properties and has the least car parking capacity. Option B
removes the Old TAFE Building, does not include the Civic Video property, and has more
parking than Option A but possibly still not enough parking to optimise the visitors parking in
town and use of the bus to Echo Point. Option C (the most intensive development) removes the
Old TAFE Building, uses all three properties, incorporates a supermarket and reaches the car
parking capacity estimated by the Charrette to be needed, if shared, for all the uses on the site.
These designs should not be construed as the only ways to achieve the objective of making the
Cultural/Visitors Centre and visitors car parking a reality; further study may evolve better codevelopment
approaches and designs. However, the Project Design Brief, which follows the
designs, spells out the key design and performance characteristics that any development of
this site should incorporate.
10.1.4 Multi-Use Option ‘A’ Which Keeps the Old Tafe Building
This preliminary design retains the existing historic TAFE building, which was originally the
Katoomba High School. In considerable but superficial disrepair, this building appears to be
still sound and restorable, at a cost. The building crowns the hill, enjoying spectacular views
from its top floor. The Old TAFE Building might be part of the Cultural/Visitors Centre,
although its specific use was not specified in the design. It is also suited to office use and/or
training functions.
This site incorporates the sites of the present RTA Building and what is now Jane Young’s video
hire outlet. The Cultural/Visitors Centre described above (or something like it) would be
constructed north of the Old TAFE Building, with surface car parking to its east (see plan
below). South of a proposed new east-west lane, which terminates at the rear of the Civic
Centre, is proposed a cinema triplex, sleeved by retail and/or commercial businesses on its
exposed south, east and west sides. This important ‘sleeving’ means that no blank walls front
public streets needing activity and passive surveillance for safety, while still giving the cinema
complex a prominent entry and movie title board on Parke Street. A vehicular accessway along
the north side off Prior Lane gives access into underground parking beneath this part of the
site (up to the northern edge of the new east-west lane).
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