The Anchorage Opening – NSW State Minister for Planning Rob Stokes’ Speech

Thanks Lesli, thanks ladies and gentlemen. I too want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. I also want to acknowledge a couple of local government councillors that I see with us today and that’s Councillor Christine Forster from the City of Sydney, as well as Councillor Ted Bennett from Woollahra Council, and most particularly I also wanted to thank the Berger family for the opportunity to be with you and also for the opportunity to open this wonderful new contribution to Woolloomooloo.

As Lesli has mentioned, this development really adheres to the principles of new urbanism which is a movement that this city really needs to embrace if we are to truly develop in sustainable ways that’s going to make our city more liveable, more productive and ultimately the sort of place that’s attractive for us and for our children and for new residents moving into the city.

For too long this city has been lazy in its patterns of development and that’s left a legacy now that is somewhat ironic in that we live in the most sparsely populated inhabited continent on earth and yet ironically we suffer from a land scarcity problem in Sydney. The reason for that is, of course, the legacy of car dependent development that has led to lazy subdivision and settlement patterns. We’re now trapped by these lazy subdivision patterns and the only way in which we can deal with this legacy of uncoordinated development is to be more thoughtful, more conscious of our surroundings and more thrifty and efficient in our planning, in our design and in our use of spaces, and that’s something that The Anchorage does incredibly effectively.

Fivex, here, have produced a triumph of urban design, really focused on those principles of new urbanism. Thinkers like Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs writing in the 1960s talked about the anti-urban movement of cities that have been really driven by technological developments in motor vehicles at the time that allowed cities just to grow outwards and outwards and further and further out and they called for a return to more urbanist principles and thus began that movement, that new urbanism that the Future Cities Collaborative is all about that so inspired Leslie and his family to create this development based on those principles of new urbanism.

Like me, I’m sure all of you were struck by the fact that this is a development that doesn’t detract from its neighbourhood but rather adds to it and enhances the liveability and the architectural attractiveness of this site.

What may also have struck you, as it struck me, was for a very limited site in terms of 500 square metres, that the Berger family and the architects at Eeles Trelease and builders Zadro, and not to forget Hercules Car Stackers, have really made efficient use of this space to create a liveable and a beautiful contribution to this part of Sydney.

This is the sort of development, ladies and gentlemen, that the NSW government would like to see in more places, so that as Sydney gets bigger it actually becomes a better place to live as well and, ultimately, that should be the focus of everyone in the development industry, everyone in the planning industry, everyone in government. Leslie spoke, I thought, in a very restrained way about government regulation but the way in which we need government and council regulation to work is to facilitate good development and hinder bad development; that’s what regulation is there to do, to guide the development industry to produce great outcomes and here we’re an example of that today.

So it’s a great delight for me to be here to officially open The Anchorage and wish the Berger family all the very best as they continue to contribute to shaping this great city of ours. Thanks very much.

NSW State Minister for Planning Rob Stokes