Decision details

Minute by the Lord Mayor

To Council:

Tonight’s meeting is the last of our three-year term on Council. During this term we have continued to achieve great outcomes – for those who live in our city now as well as those who will live, work, run their business or visit here in the future.

The following are some key highlights over the past term.

Breathing life back into the city post-Covid

We have come a long way since the pandemic devastated our businesses, particularly hospitality, retail, tourism and entertainment. The City’s quick response with a Community Recovery Plan played a key role in mitigating the damage and supporting the economy and community which continued into this term, at a cost to the City of more than $149 million.

However, we know many of those sectors still continue to struggle including cultural and creative industries. The draft Economic Strategy 2025-2035, endorsed for public exhibition last month, charts a way forward for ongoing recovery, while championing a global economy that unlocks innovation, which is sustainable and inclusive, and provides great local experiences. 

Our residents also continue to grapple with the cost-of-living crisis including increasing rents and food insecurity.

That’s why we have spent $2.1 billion over the last term supporting residents and local businesses including through grants, building capital works projects, maintaining community facilities and parks, and working with other levels of government and key stakeholders to help deliver more affordable and diverse housing than any other Council in Australia.

We also ran multiple series of successful Sydney Streets events, produced precinct activations like Neon Playground in Haymarket and Hollywood Quarter in Surry Hills, extended free outdoor dining to the end of 2025 with over 700 businesses trading on footpaths and roadways as part of the alfresco dining program.

Increased diverse and affordable housing

We continue to use every lever available to maximise the amount of affordable and diverse housing in our local area including through planning mechanisms such as developer contributions and planning agreements, selling discounted land to Community Housing Providers, and through grants from our Affordable and Diverse Housing Fund.

As a result, the City has contributed to 3,323 affordable homes in our area either built or anticipated in the future. The City’s Affordable Housing levy scheme, which covers all of the Local Government Area since 2021, is projected to deliver a further 1,950 affordable dwellings.

This term we have collected levies, sold land at a discounted rate and approved grants to community housing providers totalling $73.4 million. That includes $60 million collected in development levies that we provided to City West Housing and we approved over $7.4 million in discounted land sales, and cash grants of $6 million from our Affordable and Diverse Housing Fund to not-for-profit Community Housing Providers. This includes:

·                $3 million to Wesley Mission to redevelop the RJ Williams building in Glebe, providing 56 affordable rental homes for women aged over 55, young people at risk of homelessness and key workers;

·                $3 million to the Salvation Army to redevelop William Booth House in Surry Hills which will provide 51 residential rehabilitation units and space to treat 500 outpatients;

·                the discounted sale of seven terrace houses in Darlinghurst to Common Equity NSW to partner with All Nations Housing Co-operative to establish the first dedicated housing project for transgender women, a highly at-risk target-group, with an urgent need for co-located housing close to essential services; and

·                the discounted sale of two one-bedroom units to B Miles Women's Foundation Incorporated to operate as affordable housing for women with mental illness experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

In addition, we also gave Bridge Housing $7.8 million in levies enabling them to buy a 20-unit block in Glebe for low-income housing.

We approved a new affordable housing distribution plan to enable City West Housing, Bridge Housing and St George Community Housing to be able to receive the Affordable Housing contributions we collect. This will ensure we continue to maximise the delivery of Affordable Housing in our area, while also strengthening the capacity of the Community Housing Provider sector.

I have continued to advocate for the retention of boarding houses which play an important role in our diverse housing stock. Councils are obliged to accept and assess Development Applications (DAs) that result in the loss of boarding houses under the outdated NSW Affordable Rental Housing State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) Guidelines for Retention of Existing Affordable Rental Housing 2009 referenced by the Housing SEPP.

We have called on the NSW Government to urgently review the Guidelines and implement the long overdue recommendations of the 2020 statutory review of the Boarding Houses Act 2012, which the former and current NSW Governments have failed to do.

I joined other Capital City Lord Mayors in Canberra to meet Federal Government Ministers and crossbench MPs to advocate for increased funding for social and affordable housing.

Our campaign to increase affordable and social housing on the Waterloo Estate redevelopment was successful with an NSW Government commitment to provide 50 per cent Social and Affordable Housing at Waterloo South. This is instead of the former Coalition Government’s Communities Plus policy of 70 per cent market housing and 30 per cent social and affordable housing. Council approved $450,000 in grants to local community services such as Redfern Legal Centre, Counterpoint Community Services and Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation to help residents through relocations as part of the Waterloo South redevelopment over the next three years.

Continuing our Long-Term Vision

Our ongoing achievements are the direct result of having a long-term plan for the future as well as strong financial management and governance. We have consistently delivered debt-free budgets that have received unqualified audits, which have allowed us to deliver on priorities while keeping rates among the lowest in the metropolitan area, with free rates for pensioners.

Emerging from the pandemic, in 2022 we adopted an update to our long-term strategic plan: Sustainable Sydney 2030-2050 Continuing the Vision. The new plan builds on Sustainable Sydney 2030, which underpinned the City’s work to create a greener, more connected, affordable and equitable city for over a decade.

The new plan has ten strategic directions that set a framework for action, ten targets to measure progress and future transformative projects we’re already realising like increasing the supply of affordable housing and unlocking more green space at Moore Park Golf Course. The plan reinforces the community’s priorities, extends targets and pushes us harder to ensure Sydney’s liveability, sustainability and diversity now and into the future.

Climate action 

In an Australian-first, Council endorsed our Net Zero planning controls that require applications for new office buildings, hotels and shopping centres and major redevelopments to comply with minimum energy ratings and to achieve net zero by 2026 – ensuring buildings help the City reach our target of net zero emissions by 2035.

Already six development applications have been lodged that comply with the standards saving $1.3 billion in private running costs and $316 million in public savings as well as reducing building emissions. This work achieved a Planning Institute award in 2021 and paved the way for a similar statewide policy.

New draft planning controls aim to ban gas appliances in new residential developments, and we made it easier to install solar panels by making it exempt development. We also advocated for the statewide banning of gas connections in new developments, regulations to protect apartment owners from embedded networks, and the introduction of minimum energy performance standards for existing rental properties, which is also an issue of equity.

In 2023, we installed 200 heat sensors across the City which will provide valuable data to plan better heat mitigation and adaptation strategies, including where to plant more trees. We provided funding for a pop-up cooling tent fitted with a water misting system and other facilities to provide respite and care for people sleeping rough during heat waves.

Food scraps make up one-third of the waste in general rubbish bins, and decomposing food waste makes up eight per cent of global emissions. I’m pleased that following my 2023 Lord Mayoral Minute, Council agreed to establish a food scraps recycling trial. We are feeding our food scraps to maggots, whose manure can become protein-rich animal feed and fertiliser. This trial - a truly circular solution - will be up and running by the end of 2024.

We are lowering barriers to EV use with a trial of nine on-street charging points across the city with space to charge 17 cars with another eight charging points with space for 16 cars on the way. These locations will result in a total of 33 on-street charging bays in our area. They complement the 222 publicly accessible charging bays in our area including 26 ‘super-fast’ charge points.

To support strata communities with EV charging, our development controls now mandate that all new apartment buildings are EV ready and we are investigating ways to overcome the technical, governance and management challenges facing strata communities who want to retrofit their buildings with EV chargers.

Over the past year we have doubled the number of electric vehicles in our fleet. We now have 39 electric cars, making up 60 per cent of our passenger vehicle fleet. The remaining 40 per cent are hybrid vehicles and will be replaced with electric over the next three years.

As more electric trucks and equipment become available, we are adding them to our fleet. We now have five electric vehicles in our cleansing and resource recovery fleet - including one truck, three buggies and one footway sweeper and we will be adding more over the next few years.

We secured the lease of three floors in 180 George Street for 20 years for Greenhouse, the biggest climate technology hub in Australasia. Opened earlier this year, the hub is where about 400 innovators, ecopreneurs, investors, governments, climate action groups, academics, researchers and committed corporations come to collaborate on solutions to the world’s most serious climate problems.

Our partnerships that focus on reducing emissions, water use and waste in building continued to deliver impressive results. The Better Buildings Partnership which involves 99 commercial office buildings capturing 55 per cent of office space in the city have achieved a 95 per cent reduction in emissions and 63 per cent reduction in water use from a 2006 baseline.

In the tourism sector, the Sustainable Destination Partnership which covers over half the hotel rooms in Sydney plus many major attractions, have reduced emissions and water use by 24 per cent from a 2018 baseline. Two thirds of members are also diverting 50 per cent of their waste from landfill.

CitySwitch supports 19 per cent of office-based businesses in Australia (1,171 tenancies and 142 of those in Sydney alone). In Sydney, 80 percent of tenancies have switched to renewable electricity and the average NABERS energy rating is 5 stars. CitySwitch is so successful that other councils are joining to support businesses in their areas to move toward net zero emissions and the Federal Government will also be partnering with the CitySwitch program so its reach will continue across Australia.

By working with 279 apartment buildings home to 32,000 residents, our Smart Green Apartments program has delivered more than $11 million in savings to Owners Corporations and prevented over 61,000 tonnes in emissions through investments in efficiency improvements and renewables in apartment buildings. The City’s Environmental Grants are also driving apartment building upgrades and innovative sustainability solutions across our city.

Street lighting is the largest source of electricity use for councils. In 2023, we completed more than a decade of work to upgrade all street lights in our area to energy efficient LEDs. We began by converting 6,500 lights owned and managed by the City and in 2018 paid Ausgrid to accelerate the upgrade of their remaining lights. In total, 17,000 street lights have now been upgraded to LED. This is our biggest carbon reduction project and saves the City and Ausgrid almost $2 million a year.

Following our lead, 29 other councils in Greater Sydney have converted their old streetlights to energy efficient LED lights, through the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) Streetlight Improvement Program. Collectively they have converted 75 per cent – or more than 210,000 – street lights across Greater Sydney which will result in 69 per cent of energy savings by 2026 compared with the peak of 2008, and recurrent cost savings of at least $94 million a year.

In March, the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia awarded the Engineering Excellence Award to the Street Lighting Improvement Program, noting the extraordinary level of collaboration in this project.

And we are not stopping there. We will add smart controls to our street lighting allowing them to be dimmed in off peak periods, reducing energy use by a further 30 per cent, saving money and freeing up capacity in the network for other uses.

Trees and greenery

In 2021, we approved our new Urban Forest Strategy and Street Tree Master Plan to guide our work to create an even more cool, calm, and climate change-resilient city. Our ambitious Street Tree Master Plan received a prestigious award at the 2023 NSW Landscape Architecture Awards.

This term we’ve planted 1,949 street trees, installed over 26,455 square metres of public domain landscaping and installed six new raingardens, and added over 185,000 new plants in our open spaces.

Because of our extensive planting, we are the only city in the country to increase our canopy cover over the past decade. Now we're readying to go even further – to plant more trees, plants and shrubbery, and make sure they are species that are hardy and resilient to our changing climate.

Street upgrades, parks and facilities

In the last 20 years, we’ve invested $474 million creating 36 new parks and open spaces, adding over 30.8 hectares of new open space and upgraded 143 neighbourhood parks. In the last term, these included:

·                The Drying Green in Green Square

·                Butterscotch Park and Honeykiss Way in Rosebery

·                Wimbo Park in Surry Hills

·                Lawrence Hargrave Reserve in Potts Point, and

·                Peace Park in Chippendale

We created four new sports fields at Gunyama Park in Zetland, Getiela Park and Perry Park in Alexandria, and at the Crescent in Annandale, using synthetic turf. These fields provide an extra 11,000 playing hours per year, achieving about 70 per cent of our target for sports and recreation needs by 2030.

In 2023, we celebrated a comprehensive restoration of the 90-year old, heritage-listed Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park including structural, hydraulic, and electrical improvements.

After years of campaigning, the NSW Premier committed to converting up to 20 hectares of the Moore Park Golf Course to publicly accessible parkland for the growing communities of Green Square, Waterloo, Zetland and Redfern, with funding allocated to progress planning. We called for the expanded parkland to be used for informal recreation with improved connectivity and no more parking.

In 2022, we developed a masterplan for a united Wentworth Park for when the Greyhound racing lease expires in 2027 so the park can be returned to the public. However, earlier this year we had to reinvigorate our campaign when the NSW Government indicated it was considering reversing the decision to end Greyhound racing there when the lease expires. The NSW Government must honour commitments made to the communities of Pyrmont, Ultimo and Glebe so this precious parkland can support increased density in the area as part of redevelopment under the Pyrmont Peninsula Place Strategy. 

We increased the budget for our community centres by 20 per cent, which added nine additional staff across our community facilities. We have also added more than 70 new programs and activities at our community centres over and above existing programs and the St Helens Community centre in Glebe is now open five days per week.

In 2022, we introduced fee waivers for eligible community groups using our venues which will continue until 2029. Over the past two years, 244 requests for fee waivers have been granted for over 14,000 hours of use, valued at almost $420,000.

We are nearing completion of the $11 million upgrade to Pyrmont Community Centre with an increased scope of works at the community’s request. Later this year we will also reopen a refreshed Darlington Activity Centre.

We also approved $7.9 million plans to upgrade the Redfern/Darlington Community Centre Open Space, Yellomundee Park and Hugo Street Reserve, including to keep the basketball court in its place.

Council approved a $44 million plan to rejuvenate Chinatown, which includes major public domain upgrades, support for businesses and more community events as well as grant funding and changes to planning controls. Heritage restoration of the Gates has begun.

We successfully completed major upgrades of Macleay Street, Potts Point, Macdonald Street, Erskineville, and George Street south – creating beautiful streetscapes and more space for people with improved accessibility.

The $34 million upgrade of Crown Street is moving ahead and we're creating even more space for outdoor dining, landscaping, new smart poles, bubblers and seating.

In 2023, our new street furniture designed by Grimshaw Architects and the City of Sydney received an urban design commendation at the Australian Institute of Architecture awards.

Earlier this year, as a result of a shocking failure of a State-based regulatory process that governs the safety of recycled mulch, we were advised by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) that 43 of our parks and 135 street garden bed sites were potentially affected by contaminated mulch through supply chains. We immediately mobilised substantial resources and began testing, remediating and disposing of contaminated mulch as quickly as possible. All affected areas have now been fully remediated and are open to the public.

Building a connected city

Transport for NSW estimates that in Sydney, road congestion costs the economy more than $7 billion a year, and this impact is predicted to grow significantly. Our transport system is consistently identified in global surveys as one the major factors affecting our competitiveness and liveability.

Light rail has transformed George Street in central Sydney. What was once a grimy street clogged with noisy, polluting buses has been transformed into a tree-lined boulevard where people want to live, work, shop and socialise and attracted over $8 billion in private investment in the CBD.

By the time the George Street transformation is complete, we’ll have spent about $300 million reclaiming over 26,000 square meters of former roadway for people, including adjacent streets, with new footpaths, trees, street furniture, spaces for outdoor dining and simpler intersections to reduce travel times for everyone.

Work was completed on George Street south and Devonshire Street in Surry Hills in August 2023. We are now pedestrianising George Street north from Hunter Street to Essex Street, which will be extended to Alfred Street later on when the NSW Government’s Circular Quay Redevelopment project is completed.

Earlier this year, we were awarded the 2024 Australian Urban Design Awards: Winner of Built Projects – City and Regional Scale for our transformation of George Street. The Jury commented on the significant impacts that the project has had on reinvigorating our city through reclaiming places for people and public transport instead of vehicles. They also said that the project’s impact is testament to the power that the collaboration of multiple levels of government can bring to cities. 

We approved a major public domain upgrade for the Town Hall precinct, including the redevelopment of Sydney Square – the next obvious step in the transformation of George Street. We’re also providing greener and calmer public spaces under the City North Public Domain Plan as the new metro stations and large development proposals bring more workers, residents and visitors.

We have delivered 25 kilometres of separated cycleways, over 66 kilometres of shared paths and 45 kilometres of other cycling infrastructure, more than doubling the number of bike trips in the city area since 2010 when counts began.

This term we completed cycling infrastructure on:

·                Portman Street, Zetland Avenue and the first section of Ngamuru Avenue (between Botany Road and O’Riordan Street) in Green Square;

·                Swanson, Macdonald, Ashmore, and Harley Streets and Henderson Road, Railway Parade and Bridge Street in Erskineville;

·                Huntley Street and Mitchell Road in Alexandria;

·                Gadigal Avenue and Potter and Crystal Streets in Waterloo;

·                Pitt Street North, King Street (between Pitt and Phillip streets) and College Street in central Sydney; and

·                Booth Street in Glebe.

With four more cycling infrastructure projects currently under construction including Oxford and Liverpool Streets cycleways, Castlereagh Street walking and cycling improvements, Ngamuru Avenue (between O’Riordan and Bourke Streets) and Glebe to Ultimo cycleway, five in detailed design and three in early planning stages - we remain committed to connecting the bike network.

We have also been working closely with the NSW Government to progress the delivery of key missing cycleway links under their control including the Oxford Street East cycleway between Paddington Gates and Taylor Square. There are up to 3,000 bike trips on Oxford Street every day, and the most reported bike accidents of any street in our area. Adding a separated cycleway will lead to substantial safety improvements for cyclists, it will be great for pedestrians by taking cyclists off footpaths and be great for the fabulous strip.

As well as providing this essential infrastructure, we continue to offer free one-on-one cycling courses and pop-up bike maintenance sessions.

To mitigate traffic impacts from WestConnex and the opening of the St. Peters interchange, the City worked with the community to develop the Alexandria and Erskineville Traffic and Transport Study focusing on Park Street, Henderson Road, Mitchell Road, Maddox and Harley Streets where residents raised particular concerns about road safety in the area. Council has committed $6.5 million to implement 17 traffic management and road space reallocation treatments over next term to improve safety, access and amenity for people walking and cycling in the area, subject to further investigations, design and consultation.

In collaboration with Transport for NSW, the Millers Point Community Resident Action Group and other stakeholders, we’re also developing a traffic and transport plan for State heritage-listed Millers Point in response to local concerns about safety and increased traffic from tourists off cruise ships and large events like New Year’s Eve and Vivid.

Currently, 75 per cent of all local and regional roads in the City are 40km/h or less. We’re working with Transport for NSW so that by August this year, all remaining local and regional roads in our LGA will have a speed limit of 40km/h or less, up from less than five per cent in 2004. We are also advocating for 30km/h speed limits in the city centre and other areas of highest pedestrian activity, in line with other global cities.

This term Council approved three key strategies and actions plans that underpin what the City will continue to do to create a city for walking, cycling and public transport including Electrification of Transport in the City - Strategy and Action Plan, the City Access Strategy and Action Plan and A City for Walking Strategy and Action Plan.

Securing Oxford Street’s future

We began aligning the stars for Oxford Street’s long-term success, with new planning controls that encourage investment and create more creative and cultural space, and the major redevelopment of City-owned properties, while protecting heritage. Since the new planning controls came into effect in 2022, we have received four applications. If all four are approved, they will contribute almost 6,000 square metres of new cultural and creative space.

The new planning controls are complemented by the Oxford Street LGBTIQA+ Social and Cultural Place Strategy, a first in Australia for an LGBTIQA+ precinct. The Strategy aims to recognise, preserve, and promote Oxford Street’s significant connection to the LGBTIQA+ community.

As part of the strategy, in June 2023 we launched the Oxford Street Pride Business Charter. The Charter supports businesses to adopt practices that are inclusive of diverse LGBTIQA+ communities and to work together to celebrate the LGBTIQA+ history and character of the precinct. As of July this year, 66 businesses had signed up. The City has also supported the “PrideVis” initiative, launched in June this year, which provides vests featuring pride flags to be worn by security staff at bars and pubs on Oxford Street.

The Strategy also acknowledges Council's long standing support of the LGBTIQA+ community's aspiration for a permanent queer museum. This aspiration was realised on 23 February this year with the official opening of Qtopia Sydney, the Centre for Queer History and Culture in the former Darlinghurst Police Station in part thanks to $283,500 in seed funding by the City. We also provided the Bandstand in Green Park as a temporary museum during WorldPride and have leased the former nearby substation and toilet block to Qtopia as additional spaces. Earlier this year we gave Qtopia a $100,000 cash grant to enable it to provide free entry on Sundays.

Celebrating and supporting our First Nations peoples

In 2022, at a headland ceremony reminiscent of traditional Gadigal gatherings, First Nations dancers unveiled one of the city's most significant public artworks: bara, our Monument to the Eora, the first peoples of Sydney. Created by artist Judy Watson, bara represents the fish hooks crafted and used by Gadigal women for thousands of generations, the work has a gleaming finish reminiscent of local seashells.

We also began installing signage for Yananurala, a nine-kilometre walk that will highlight Aboriginal history and culture at places along the Harbour foreshore.

In June 2023, the City launched the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce strategy, a key part of our Stretch reconciliation action plan. The Strategy demonstrates our commitment to our shared responsibility in the Closing the Gap agreement. It recognises that our work to increase employment outcomes must be Aboriginal led and informed if it is to be successful. A dedicated Workforce Advisor – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Inclusion has been employed to implement the Strategy.

In 2023 the City was proud to support amending Australia’s Constitution to provide for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. Although the referendum to achieve recognition of our First Peoples was unsuccessful, around 70 per cent of people within the Federal Electorate of Sydney (which largely overlaps the City of Sydney Local Government Area) voted “yes”.

In April 2022, Council unanimously agreed to increase understanding and awareness of the history, culture and ongoing experience of Australian South Sea Islanders within our community. We flew the Australian South Sea Islander flag at Sydney Town Hall on 25 August for South Sea Islander Recognition Day, which has now become an annual event, alongside other events and programs.

We opened the doors to our new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and cultural centre at 119 Redfern Street. Guided by the City’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel, the City's Indigenous Leadership and Engagement and Social City teams, the colonial building has been reclaimed and turned into a beautiful place for people to share knowledge and culture.

Supporting a creative city

In June 2022, we increased our stock of affordable creative space with the opening of our five-storey City of Sydney Creative Studios in Bathurst Street, leased from the developer Greenland for a peppercorn rent for 99 years. This state-of-the-art facility provides affordable spaces to suit all kinds of artists, musicians, podcasters, performers and other creatives.

We have also begun to work to restore the historic Sydney Park brick kilns for cultural and community use and events.

In June this year we unanimously signed off on the closure of the Creative City Cultural Policy and Action Plan 2014- 2024, with 97 per cent of the 208 actions commenced, underway or completed. The remaining three per cent are the sole responsibility of the Commonwealth Government.

We simultaneously endorsed the draft Cultural Strategy 2025-2035 for public exhibition which proposes new solutions to the challenges facing our cultural and creative sector, backed by new investment of $20 million in new funding initiatives to support the arts, culture, and creative industries.

One exciting proposal is our joint commitment with the NSW Government to deliver a Creative Land Trust. This will be an independent charitable trust that can raise money from governments and philanthropy to secure affordable rehearsal and studio space in perpetuity and address the critical shortage of creative space.

Championing inclusion

This year, we created a new $4.5 million food relief grant program to help organisations distribute food to struggling households as the cost-of-living soars. The first round of grants funded 21 community organisations who in turn support over 200 agencies providing the equivalent of 350,000 meals for food insecure people in our City. Through our Food Operations Working Group and a dedicated staff member, we help source over one tonne of fresh produce weekly so members also share resources, and connect to the broader food system to develop circular solutions.

In 2023, as part of our Emerging Civic Leaders Program, a series of videos were developed with young people with disabilities to increase awareness of invisible disabilities and break down stereotypes. These terrific videos reached about 76,000 online views. We also hosted a Good Access is Good for Business event as part of the City’s International Day for People with Disability program to help reduce barriers faced by people with disabilities.

We transitioned to flying the Progress Pride flag over Town Hall and throughout city streets during this year's Mardi Gras. The design represents greater inclusion, embracing the breadth of identity within the LGBTIQA+ community.

We have updated the rainbow flag crossing on the Bourke and Campbell Street intersection and a new Progress Pride crossing will be installed at Taylor Square outside Qtopia before the end of the year. The rainbow pathway in Prince Alfred Park has also been updated with the Progress Pride flag design.

The City allocated more than $1.7 million in funding to support the marquee international pride event, WorldPride in February and March 2023. WorldPride was a major event, not just for Sydney or Australia, but the whole Asia-Pacific. Despite significant strides, LGBTIQA+ people in Australia and across the region are still fighting for equal rights.

Replacing 60 street name signs in the Oxford Street precinct with street name blades featuring a progress pride flag motif is a permanent legacy of WorldPride. The 22 Progress Pride Street banners installed on the north side of Taylor Square for WorldPride are also now permanent.

In 2022, we began running free Trans and Gender Diverse Swim Events at Cook and Phillip Park Pool, providing up to 500 people with a safe and inclusive opportunity for swimming, sport, food, and fun and music".

We also host Rainbow family events in our libraries and extensive program of activities during Pride Month.

In the face of increased violence at queer events and places, we hosted an LGBTIQA+ Safety Summit in conjunction with ACON, bringing together key stakeholders to create a path for a safe and inclusive city.

Following the Summit the City hosted a workshop, Keeping Safer Online for LGBTQ+ Communities, with the eSafety Commissioner. We also awarded a grant which enabled ACON to host three similar workshops for council workers in NSW and two workshops for community leaders and workers.

In 2022, I resumed hosting an annual welcome for international students, after this event paused due to the Covid pandemic. These events recognise the important contribution international students make to our city. Council also resolved to call on the NSW Government to provide international and part-time university students access to public transport concessions.

Delivering design excellence and planning for our future

The City has achieved greener, more humane, innovative and beautifully designed buildings and public domain areas through mechanisms such as our Design Excellence Policy and the competitive design process. More than 160 competitive processes have been completed since its inception over 24 years ago, with many developments acknowledged by local and international design and development industry awards.

This term we also continued to deliver the Green Square Urban Renewal area along with our $1.8 billion infrastructure plan and 40 parks, places and facilities planned. This is an example of density done well.

We have been implementing changes to our planning controls in line with the targets and actions in our Local Strategic Planning Statement, including changes on Oxford Street, Botany Road and in our Southern Enterprise Area.

Last year we approved a suite of updates to our Local Environmental Plans and Development Controls Plans, following the first extensive review since 2012. These changes introduce incentives for diverse housing in Central Sydney, protections against a significant loss of housing, flexibility in application processes to increase efficiency and decrease costs. We also approved increased greening requirements and tightened car parking rates. Most of these changes are awaiting Gateway Determination from the NSW Government to allow us to consult on the changes.

We have met 71 per cent of our previous NSW Government set housing target within just seven years of our 20-year goal, with over 21,000 dwellings built and over 19,000 in the pipeline. This term alone, the City has determined about 5,300 development applications and modification worth $8.5 billion.

In May, the NSW Government gave us a new housing target of around 18,900 new private homes to be completed by July 2029, which the City will, as it has always done, endeavour to meet. We are committed to working with the NSW Government on a Local Housing Accord to ensure more opportunities for housing that deliver well-designed, sustainable homes and attractive neighbourhoods, as market conditions allow.

After over five years sitting with the NSW Government, the Central Sydney Planning Strategy finally came into effect in 2021. It supports opportunities for additional building height and density in the right locations, so long as the new development contributes to environmental sustainability, design excellence and infrastructure.

The approval was subject to a staged transition from one per cent to three per cent contribution rate for local infrastructure, which came into full effect in 2022. It is estimated the new contributions plan will contribute over $250 million towards infrastructure projects in Central Sydney. Last year, we approved controls to incentivise diverse housing in Central Sydney, including build-to-rent and co-living housing.

In the meantime in Central Sydney, we worked with developers to deliver not just impressive, sustainable office towers but also a network of retail lanes, public art and community facilities at the Quay Quarter Precinct, which includes Quay Quarter Tower, the world’s largest upcycled tower building and 180 George Street which includes a 20-metre high canopy artwork by Aboriginal artist Daniel Boyd above the first new public plaza to be dedicated to the City in decades.

We refurbished significant City-owned buildings like the Corporation Building in Haymarket and 343 George Street in the city centre.

Standing up to the NSW Government

We negotiated improved planning outcomes on state significant sites at Blackwattle Bay, Central Barangaroo, Waterloo and the Paint Shop Precinct in North Eveleigh. This work will continue as we advocate for more local considerations as the government implements its widespread planning changes including those to encourage more low and mid-rise housing.

The NSW Government proposed taking local councils' infrastructure contributions – money levied from developers to pay for community infrastructure associated with development, like parks and playgrounds. I led a campaign with other Sydney Metropolitan Mayors who successfully defeated the bill, but we remain vigilant to prevent similar proposals that will disadvantage our residents and businesses.

We asked the NSW Government to take urgent action to strengthen renters’ rights. Recent government announcements to end no grounds evictions is welcome, but renters also desperately need a limit on rent increases, energy efficiency standards in rental homes and changes to make it easier for renters to have pets.

Following a comprehensive review of the impacts of short-term rental accommodation on rental affordability in our area, we advocated for a 90-day cap on non-hosted short term rental accommodation alongside a levy proposed by the NSW Government. We also argued that short term rental caps must be enforced, the register improved to better capture all listings and prevent listing ineligible properties and be properly enforced.

We supported a community-led petition calling for Transport for NSW to allow companion animals on public transport. The petition garnered over 10,000 online signatures and the NSW Government has committed to investigate the opportunity for change.

In June, following my Lord Mayor Minute, Council resolved to call on the NSW Government for urgent regulation of share bikes including capping the number of share bikes and operators in our area.

We have started advocating and campaigning for the extension of the light rail line from Parramatta Road and Broadway to Green Square via Central Station – just as we did for George Street and the rest of the CBD and South East Light Rail. The new light rail line will transport thousands of workers and students to jobs and education, boost businesses, support the 24-hour economy, and contribute to Sydney’s net-zero future by taking cars off the roads. We’ve given in-principle approval to contribute $100 million towards enhancing the public domain alongside light rail, if the NSW Government commits to this project.

Following a comprehensive review of outdoor alcohol restrictions in our area, we are reducing the number of restrictions from 433 to 218, retaining those only where there are higher than average incidents of alcohol related violence, and areas strongly supported by the community to be kept.

Working in Partnerships

I would like to thank the many members of our advisory panels and reference groups who have worked with Councillors and City staff to achieve these remarkable outcomes.

This includes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel, Audit Rick and Compliance Committee, Better Building Partnership, Business, Economic Development and Covid Recovery Advisory Panel, Central Sydney Planning Committee, City Switch National Steering Group, Curatorial Advisory Panel, Cycling Advisory Committee, Cultural and Creative Sector Advisory Panel, Design Advisory Panel, Design Advisory Panel Residential Sub-committee, Food Operations Working Group; Housing for All Working Group, Inclusion (Disability) Advisory Panel, Local Pedestrian, Cycling and Traffic Calming Committee, Multicultural Advisory Panel, Local Planning Panel, Night Time City Transport Working Group, Public Art Advisory Panel, and the Residential Apartment Sustainability Reference Group.

I would also like to thank the tens of thousands of people – residents, workers, business owners, representatives of the not for profit and business sectors and government representatives – who have shared their knowledge and advice and who have been active and engaged contributors to our city. The important feedback from across our community shapes our policy and informs the detail of how projects are designed and implemented.

I would also like to acknowledge the importance of the City’s participation in international collaborations such as the C40 Climate Leadership Group and the 100 Resilient Cities Program.

Sydney was announced as a member of the 100 Resilient Cities network in late 2014. This initiative pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation helps cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges of the 21st century. We continue to work collaboratively with Councils from across metropolitan Sydney, as well as the NSW government, to develop the Resilient Sydney strategy.

I want to thank Councillors for your contributions and especially those Councillors not seeking re-election – Councillor Shauna Jarrett, and Councillor Linda Scott who has served for three terms.

Importantly, I want to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of City staff over this term. We have benefitted from having dedicated and expert staff, led by our effective and inspiring Chief Executive Officer Monica Barone PSM and our committed and talented group of Directors.

Thank you to the Chief Executive Officer, Directors and all staff for all your hard work and expert advice and commitment to our common goals of Sustainable Sydney 2030-2050: Continuing the Vision.

COUNCILLOR CLOVER MOORE AO

Lord Mayor

Moved by the Chair (the Lord Mayor), seconded by Councillor Kok –

It is resolved that Council acknowledge the contributions of City Councillors, City of Sydney staff, partners, community members, and all who have worked constructively with us, for our city and city communities.

Carried unanimously.

S051491