Plans to build a pedestrian plaza on Knox Street have been knocked back indefinitely due to insufficient funding and significant pushback from the community.
By a vote of 8 to 5 members, the Woollahra Council planning committee has recommended the postponement of the project “due in the main to cost escalations and the resultant insufficient funding.”
It cited that requests for additional funding from the Department of Planning and Environment did not deliver a favourable result as “no extra funding is available at present.”
The pedestrian plaza project, however, received a $4.75-million funding commitment from the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program but it required the project to be completed by the end of 2022.
Council conducted a series of community consultations for this revitalisation between 2021 and 2022. Whilst some residents said the plan will “vibrancy and vitality to the local area,” others counter-argued that Knox Street could be further congested.
Mayor Susan Wayne advocated for the project, which has ignited a debate among the councillors. Cr Sean Carmichael, who formerly supported the pedestrian plaza, reversed his stand after he saw that both residents and businesses on Knox Street were not behind the proposal.
However, the General Manager of Woollahra will still continue to investigate and look for alternative pedestrian plaza projects in Double Bay that could fall under the NSW Public Spaces Legacy Program. Options will be presented in the next Council meeting on the 5th of December 2022.
