The Hills Shire is located in North West Sydney, approximately 30 km from the Sydney CBD.
Spanning approximately 38,500 hectares (386km2), the LGA includes land between Baulkham Hills and West Pennant Hills in the south, to Wiseman’s Ferry in the north. In 2016, The Hills was home to approximately 162,500 residents within 55,000 households. The Shire has around 80,000 working residents and 64,000 local jobs. Of the jobs in the Shire close to 25,000 (or 39%) are filled by residents.
Expected population growth, within the existing release areas coupled with the growth within the Sydney Metro Northwest Corridor, will see the Shire accommodating 290,900 people by 2036 which will substantially increase the demands placed on our employment lands and centres. Our Local Strategic Planning Statement, informed by this and other supporting strategies, has a vision of shaping exceptional living, working and leisure places where expected growth brings vibrancy, diversity, liveability and prosperity for the Hills. The delivery of opportunities for employment and industrial activities and new and improved centres are essential to creating a prosperous local economy and liveable neighbourhoods.
Achieving the vision will require concerted efforts to improve infrastructure to support new
communities, particularly regional transport connections. Collaboration with, and commitment from, all stakeholders including the community, State Government, business and development industry will be key to making the vison a reality.
This Strategy is based around the following Planning Priorities to guide the planning, delivery and management of our employment lands and centres in the longer term as well as Council’s actions over the next 5 years:
Plan for sufficient jobs, targeted to suit the skills of our workforce;
Build our strategic centres to realise their potential;
Provide services and social infrastructure to meet residents’ needs; and
Retain and manage valuable industrial and urban service land.
To maintain our current ratio of jobs per resident worker of 0.8:1, we will need around 50,600 jobs by 2036. The Hills currently has a future capacity to accommodate around 83,000 extra jobs, comprising 59,200 under current controls. The following table identifies the employment capacity of identified centres and precincts:
Precinct
Existing Jobs 20161
Current Capacity
(Zoned)
Future Capacity
(Potential)
Norwest Strategic Centre 29,336 24,360 16,959
Castle Hill Strategic Centre 5,880 1,220 6,810
Rouse Hill Strategic Centre 2,409 2,760 -
Town Centres 3,023 2,230 -
Transit Centres - 650 -
Box Hill Business Park - 11,620 -
Annangrove Road Employment Area 843 16,390 -
Winston Hills Employment Area 1,447 - -
Dispersed Employment Estimate 20,927 Estimate not available
Total 63,865 59,230 23,770
Total additional job capacity 83,000
1 economy.id.com.au/the-hills/employment-locations (jobs based on ABS travel zones)
Table 1: Estimated Job Capacity – Current Controls & Future Potential
Whilst these figures appear to indicate that there is sufficient land zoned to meet implied job demand, realisation of this capacity by 2036 is unlikely, primarily due to market conditions and feasibility.
The strategic centres at Norwest, Castle Hill and Rouse Hill make up the majority of employment lands and are expected to be the cornerstone of job growth particularly as patronage increases on the Sydney Metro Northwest.
Zoned capacity in the strategic centres offers a higher level of accessibility and amenity, however market uptake is still likely to be inhibited by land cost, transport constraints and fragmented ownership (strata titling). The following additional jobs are estimated in response to Central City District Plan targets to 2036:
Strategic Centre Targets for additional jobs Baseline – Higher
Estimated additional jobs Shire capacity
Castle Hill 6,200 – 9,700 5,500
Norwest 16,600 – 20,600 23,900
Rouse Hill 5,800 – 6,800 2,800
TOTAL 28,600 – 37,100 32,200
Table 2: District Plan Job Targets - Strategic Centres to 2036
Figure 1: The Hills Shire key employment precincts
More is needed to ensure job targets can be met particularly in Castle Hill and Rouse Hill. Areas within these centres that are suitable for increased commercial activity will have a more identifiable commercial core. The services and connections our Shire is able to provide to both Parramatta and the new Western Sydney International Airport will be crucial to leveraging our own economic growth.
The Norwest Service Precinct is currently the primary location in the Shire for specialised retail activities (bulky goods) and light industrial activities. Light industrial lands form a significant
component of our employment lands and are important to retain and improve for industrial and urban support services. The delivery of the Showground Station Precinct will see part of this area transition to a more commercial office function. For the western part of the precinct more detailed investigations are needed to explore longer term opportunities to provide more flexibility for small business to start up and grow, whilst retaining the important urban support function.
The intended Box Hill Business Park combined with the Annangrove Road Employment Area, will create many jobs of the future to serve residents in the area and is an opportunity to build on the successes of Norwest Business Park. Almost half of the potential jobs will be on undeveloped land already zoned for employment purposes at Box Hill Business Park and Annangrove Employment Area. These locations would only expect to see a substantial increase in demand for commercial floor space as other options (such as Norwest) reach capacity, more residents move into the area and improved regional transport links come to fruition.
Our 34 existing and planned local centres are integral to population growth and need to continue to ensure day to day access to goods and services as well as providing a sense of place and local identity. They will need to evolve in response to changing retail environment and ensure they are attractive and vibrant places where people want to spend their time.
Windsor Road Kellyville Village Centre presents a unique set of challenges given its main road location, poor streetscape appeal and amenity, insufficient range of retail mix, ageing building stock, shop vacancies and poor connectivity. It is proposed that a master plan be prepared with a view to creating an overall vision for the Centre and amending development controls to achieve an integrated and orderly approach to development.
In order to achieve positive change within older centres, it will be important that Council promote the benefits of centre redevelopment to business and property owners. This will involve working with business owners to identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
Commercial/Retail Urban Design guidelines will be prepared to guide the redevelopment of existing centres or development of new centres. These will have regard to the principles for local centres contained in the Central City District Plan. This will be supported by the development of a Public Domain Strategy which will inform a cohesive set of public domain elements to ensure Centres have a sense of place and identity.