The applicants for this development at 11 Argyle St, Camden, have been working with Council officers for over a year now to come to an agreement over the final design. It's a very important development because it will be the first building visitors to Camden will see as they enter the township. It also includes redevelopment of the Milk Co-op building, which is an iconic structure that has, sadly, been let go over the past few years.
 
The final outcome will be a function centre and five eateries, although whether these are fast food outlets, cafes or restaurants will depend on the tenants. Considering the other side of the road is a garage and industrial area, the need for this development to soften the entrance is important. 

My wife suggested that an amendment to have the front of the building covered in green growth (vines or the like) would certainly help considering all the trees will be removed. 

You can see the full set of plans, including the car park by following this link (pdf). You can find a smaller 10Mb neighbour notification file here (pdf). 

So, the demolition of the houses on Somerset Avenue is the beginning of the Elyard Gardens development, according to an article in the Macarthur Chronicle today. It's the beginning of high-density development in the heart of our area and follows on from similar developments planned for Oran Park and Leppington.

You may remember last year at a Council meeting the development application to remediate the area immediately behind the Narellan Town Centre. This is part of Elyard Gardens development.

To help you get a sense of what the development may finally look like I have brought together the three key documents including the original master plan. I can't find anything more recent at the moment but the three documents I have found are:

The original Elyard Garden Masterplan (2005).
DartWest submission to South West District Plan. (March 2017, 15.0m file - really slow loading because someone left layering on).
Camden Planning Proposal 2011. The most recent publicly available document and likely the most accurate. see Anexure A.

​Hopefully these will help cut through the speculation to see what is actually planned. 

Camden Town Farm, where you find the Saturday markets, looks like it will be undergoing some changes to bring in more tourists and to create educational and event spaces.

The plan is to create spaces for private functions in open paddock areas using lawn marquees (area 2c, 3, & 7), add two car parks along Exeter Street in (area 8 & 9), which will probably help with parking around the Bicentennial Equestrian Park and the cricket fields of Onslow Park; open a music festival area that might also be used for a night food markets, an open air cinema, machinery exhibitions and other pop-up events (Area 7). On first blush it seems like a reasonable and practical plan for a part of town that is perhaps a little underused. You can see the full development application here. 

UPDATE: We have now been able to find the updated plans for the Dairy Co-op and Function Centre that were previously on the Council website in March 2017. They are no longer on the Council website but you can find them here. The image above has been changed to reflect this more recent proposal. We are not sure why these more recent plans are no longer available but it would suggest they continue to go through further modifications. You can find the original plan that previously headed this story here.


This proposed development application (DA/2016/169/1 - showing the original plan) has been working through Camden Council since February last year. My understanding is that it has been returned a few times to the applicant for changes. The aim is to produce a structure that includes five new restaurants, a function centre and car parking.

This is a very significant and quite bulky development at the gateway to Camden. To give readers some context, the location of the old Dairy Farmers Co-op was named in the Camden Town Centre Vision 2014 report as a key-site for Camden and it was suggested that special zoning be introduced to allow for its development. As far as I'm aware, that zoning has not yet come before the Council.

The key consideration with this development is that it will be the first significant building that will be seen by visitors coming along Camden Valley Way as they arrive in Camden. It is essentially a gateway development. The size of the building also means it will obscure the Dairy Co-op. For this reason its design is crucial and should be in sympathy and representative of the character of the town.

Camden is a relatively successful township in terms of retail, small business, and visitor numbers. This is due in large part to its unique character, which has recently attracted a range of new and quite vibrant enterprises. If this new building turns out to be inconsistent with the character of Camden, it will immediately change the first impressions and even sense of Camden as visitors arrive. Its design could also potentially set a precedent that will likely encourage other developments of an inconsistent type. If that occurs, the unique character of Camden in the Sydney basin, which is its economic strength, will disappear.

In terms of the future of Camden, this one building potentially has a huge flow-on impact. Clearly, Council officers have some concerns as it is over a year since this development application was submitted, so its future is not guaranteed. Even with that in mind, all Camden residents and business owners should watch this closely. 

A subdivision of 70-80 residential blocks has been proposed for three large lots adjacent to Turner Road and Newmarket St, Currans Hill. The developer aims to rezone the area from E4 (Environmental Living) to R1 (Residential). You can see the current zoning here (pdf). 

This is not part of the South West Growth Area, so it falls entirely under Camden Council's purview. You can find all the documents relating to the development here. 

Recent discussion around transition zoning between Currans Hill and Smeaton Grange potentially makes this an interesting case. Should the report on the transition zoning suggestion return and the Council votes on the creation of such a zone, this could have an impact on the western point of this block. 

The plans for the new development by Topwei One Unit Trust at 120 Ingleburn Rd, Leppington, are now available on Camden Council's website with all other submission details. You can see an overview of the plans for the site here (pdf). You can also find all the submission documents on the Camden Council website. 

It's an impressive looking development with the ground floor of all three stages entirely taken up by retail and businesses. Nearly one quarter of the land for the development will become parkland. You can see part of the park at the front right of the artist's impression above. If you want to make a submission about this construction, see the details below.

This is not on exhibition yet but the DA was submitted this week.

Earlier this year, a Chinese developer paid $10 million for a 5.59 hectare property at 120 Ingleburn Rd, Leppington. It’s all part of the rapid development planned for Leppington proposed by the State government as part of the South West Growth corridor.

The DA for the site was submitted to Camden Council on Monday. The usual planning and environmental investigation documents that accompany these types of applications have yet to be added. I’ll let everyone know when they come in.

However, the description below indicates a $197.5m development just a few hundred metres up the road from this one.

The description reads (I’ve broken it into dot points for ease of reading):

• New Multi Unit Housing, Demolition and Torrens Subdivision 672 units Demolition of existing dwelling and sheds; clearing of limited vegetation outside zone RE1;
• Torrens title subdivision of the entire lot into three main development 'blocks';
• Construction of the public road corridors; construction of a mixed-use development consisting of basement and ground-level parking;
• Ground floor commercial/retail uses, either top-shop housing or residential flat buildings consistent with Precinct Plan;
• The residential component will consist of 672 units containing a mix of unit sizes; associated/ancillary site works including earthworks, drainage and landscaping; public open space and riparian corridor rehabilitation.

​It certainly looks as if Leppington will go from being a rural area to medium to high density housing very quickly indeed. 

Where: 317 new apartments with basement car parking, cnr Rickard Rd and Ingleburn Rd, Leppington, about two blocks from Leppington Station. It is currently a rural area.

What is happening:

• The land has been a farm for 55 years. Buildings on the site will be demolished and there will be some minor soil remediation work as some of the old buildings were originally constructed from friable asbestos.
• Three-storey apartment blocks will be built with amenities that include swimming pools and a tennis court.
• The apartments will be built in two sections and will be divided by a road through the centre that will be constructed by the applicant.

Closing date for written submissions: Thursday, November 17, 2016.

Full plans can be viewed on the council website here.

Where: Catherine Park Estate is in the area bordering Oran Park Drive, Camden Valley Way and crosses South Creek.
You can find all the documents relating to this matter here until October 25.

What is happening:

• Catherine Park House will become a land sales office with a yearly application required to keep it for this use.
• The recent heritage classification for Catherine Park House means the area belonging directly to the House will be slightly reduced in size. However, the green areas as parkland will still remain with sightlines to the coach house and those buildings beside Catherine Park House will be single storey on 700sqm lots.
• Robbins Lane, which currently runs to Catherine Park House will now be turned into a walking path and there will be increasing housing density either side. This increased density will take the form of attached dwellings (terraces and townhouses) to run along the length of the pathway.
• The increased density allowed for Robbins lane will also extend to other areas in the estate around some of the parks and other amenities of Catherine Park (main roads, access to public transport and shops). Townhouses and terraces will be allowed around the park areas and along some of the main thoroughfares. The result is an increase of around 23 houses.
• The developers have now acquired land that was owned in small parcels and this has allowed for a redevelopment of the area beside the intersection of Camden Valley Way and Oran Park Drive. Roads have been changed and a park made more central to the area.
• There have been some changes to the green areas along the river corridors

Closing date for written submissions: October 25, 2016.
Address submissions to:
Louise McMahon – Strategic Planning.
Phone: (02) 4654 7805.
Address: The General Manager, Camden Council, P0 Box 183, Camden, NSW, 2570.
Email: mail@camden.nsw.gov.au
Fax: (02) 4654 7829.