With early works for Stage 1 already under way, Council is excited to be moving forward with the planning for Stage 2 of the Wollondilly Community, Cultural & Civic Precinct.

Stage 2 will deliver a new and flexible Council Services Centre, more parking options (including basement parking) and new public spaces.

Mayor Matthew Deeth said, “Council wants to maintain momentum in bringing this vision to reality for the community, while also investing in Wollondilly to support stimulation of the local economy”

“Getting started on Stage 2 will help generate even more local jobs, especially when we start to move into the construction phases.”

The new Services Centre is being designed for maximum flexibility, to be able to accommodate increasing Council staff numbers as our Shire grows, while providing income producing co-working office space during the interim.

Council has commenced discussions about sharing the building with various State Government agencies and may also consider leasing space in the building to private entities.

The existing Council Administration Building occupies a key location on the site and while consideration was given to retaining it, the final and adopted master plan includes a new building.

The existing building does not meet current accessibility standards and has high ongoing maintenance and building management costs which would require significant capital expenditure to address.

The building also has no capacity to meet expected increases in staff numbers necessary to support the growth of the Wollondilly, which would require services to be split into multiple facilities and create an inefficient work environment.

The vision of the adopted masterplan is to provide multiple buildings with a range of different uses whilst providing as much open space as possible.

This has placed pressure on existing local planning controls around height and Council will be lodging a planning proposal to vary the height limits for the site, specifically for the Services Centre.

The Planning Proposal considerations include parking and traffic, heritage, utilities, stormwater and flooding. Council will be soon be looking at the broader planning issues of the Picton Town Centre.