Sydney flexes planning for a more diverse city at night
At MAKE we have long argued for the enlightened use of planning policy to enable a more diverse evening and night-time economy. Our background in urbanism and city planning makes us acutely aware of the enabling (or disabling) role planning can play in creating vibrant and well-balanced cities after dark.
In 2018 we worked with our partners Regeneris and Sound Diplomacy to create, what we think is, the first night-time focused spatial planning document (for LLDC) anywhere. Such planning documents, whilst in their infancy, are in our view now mission-critical for creating more harmonious cities, whether in smaller NTE-aspirant locations or for fully 24-hour global megacities.
Therefore, it’s a pleasure that, following London’s East End, our long-standing friends in Sydney (where MAKE have worked with the city on its ‘Open Sydney’ night-time and creative city process) have flexed their own planning policy to enable a new after dark diversity…
In June 2020 City of Sydney Council introduced six planning changes to support the evening and night-time economy. These were to:
1. Permit later opening retail (until 10pm) in business and mixed neighbourhoods
2. Remove the need for permits for the re-use of business and other space for small-scale low impact cultural activity
3. Introduce a streamlined permit process for the re-use of business and other space for small scale moderate impact cultural activity
4. Introduce a policy of ‘fair management of entertainment sound’ (agent of change) to protect established live music and performance venues from unreasonable complaints.
5. Allow makers and creative producers into local centres where they would once have been restricted to industrial zones.
6. De-regulating Erskineville Town Hall to permit cultural and arts events to enliven the area, particularly in the evening.
The changes were based on widespread engagement with citizens and businesses and are a key plank in Open Sydney. Open City has been devised to create a more appealing and diverse city, particularly after office hours and to broaden a nightlife that has traditionally been heavily alcohol focused.
1. The extension of retail hours in existing business districts and neighbourhoods until 10pm without needing to apply for permissions is a major step forward. The idea is to support diversification and deliver other aspects of the city’s spatial plan such as a vibrant CBD and local centres. The extensions can only happen if there is no impact or minor impact (the parameters set out in the accompanying technical document) and does not apply to outdoor trading (where permissions are still needed). Later retail must also not contravene any existing conditions on waste, parking or noise etc.
2. Exemptions for use of spaces for small scale-cultural activity. This is a permissive policy that allows small-scale cultural activity to take place without a permit in empty, meanwhile or under-used spaces that are not specifically built for cultural activity, such as offices, warehouses, shops but which may make useful temporary art galleries or theatres. There are limitations on where this can happen (e.g. not in primary residential areas), it must be on the ground floor and the premises must have a fire statement. The capacity must not exceed 70 (including staff) and can take between 7am and 10pm eight days a month and to a maximum of 26 in a year. The premises still require an alcohol licence if the cultural provider wants to service alcohol and there must be adequate access to sanitary facilities and waste etc.
3. A streamlined permit process for small-scale cultural activity with moderate impact that do not qualify for exemptions. This a new process for those temporary cultural activities that do not meet the ‘small scale, low impact’ criteria above but which are unlikely to cause any serious impacts and thus do not require a full permit. The streamlined approach follows many of the conditions above but also permits up to 120 people on 56 days a year, can be until 10pm or 12am in certain districts and does not exceed four hours in duration. The application must be accompanied by a management plan. This process will allow for greater flexibility and certainty over what small scale cultural activity is allowed where (the policy has maps setting out zones where the policies apply) and when it may take place. And for the cultural provider it avoids the need for a lengthy application process and costly suite of impact and environmental surveys.
4. Fair management of entertainment sound This now embeds agent of change within Sydney’s planning framework. It offers continuing protections to residents and others against noise from new music and cultural venues, but what it also does for the first time is protect existing cultural and live music spaces against complaints from residents who have more recently moved into the vicinity. In the first instance it does this by ensuring that the new developments are properly designed and soundproofed. To support this the council has mapped the venues in those entertainment-led or mixed-use areas in Sydney and found 173 relevant cultural premises. It has then drawn a 50m buffer around them. Any development within these 50m buffers must be done so taking into account the more stringent criteria for soundproofing and other relevant design criteria.
5. Allowing makers and creatives into local centres to enhance vibrancy. Previously, these small creative industries would not been permitted in local centres due to planning restrictions on ‘industrial’ activity outside of dedicated light industrial zones. This category includes visual art and craft studios, printing, furniture making and repair, instrument repair and production, jewellery, ceramics kilns, 3D printing, glass blowing and fashion/sewing/pattern making.
6. De-regulating Erskineville Town Hall. The removal of restrictions preventing the building being used for community purposes such as theatre, cinema, music and dance appears, superficially, to be very specific to Erskineville Town Hall. However, there are grander lessons for municipalities and communities worldwide where thinking imaginatively and changing a planning system to extend permitted cultural uses can expand the possibility of uses both in diversity and temporally, something with particular importance to the evening economy. Now, more than ever, is the time for cities to examine their building stock for opportunities to de-regulate and promote low impact cultural activity.
For more information on developing an evening and night-time specific planning document, contact the MAKE team at info@makeassociates.com