The Penrith community will share in a total of up to $250 million in NSW Government funding to create a legacy of quality, green and accessible public space to be treasured for generations to come.
Stuart Ayres MP, Member for Penrith today announced $4 million has been allocated to Penrith City Council toward the new City Park as part of the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program.
“This is a great result for the local community,” Stuart Ayres said.
“The program will create legacy public spaces for future generations as well as keep people of Penrith in jobs to ensure the local economy keeps moving as we continue to respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
City Park at the corner of Henry and Station Streets will deliver 7,000sqm of green open space including themed gardens, tree canopy, water features and landscaping.
“To secure full funding for the project, council needs to continue accelerating assessment and determination of local DAs, which will have the additional benefit of bolstering the local construction pipeline through to 2023.”
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes said the funding being delivered to councils was reliant on them meeting agreed targets to speed up local development applications.
“This program is the first of its kind in NSW and demonstrates state and local government working together to create a legacy of beautiful public spaces that communities, for decades, can be proud of,” Mr Stokes said.
“In exchange for legacy funding, councils participating in the program need to speed up their assessment times. They have until June 30 to keep hitting their targets but, so far, the program has seen a 20 per cent improvement.
“It’s been great to see the unclogging of the planning system as part of this program – 42 of 53 planning proposals that had been stuck in the planning system for more than four years have been resolved and 161 of 168 regionally significant development applications have been cleared.”
Penrith City Council will be provided with funding for project planning and design and will have until 30 June 2021 to demonstrate they have met DA assessment performance improvements to lock in their full allocation of funding, ahead of construction starting on projects from August this year.
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