The Wollondilly Cultural Precinct will strengthen Picton’s role as the cultural and civic heart of Wollondilly. It will provide an important opportunity to conserve Picton’s heritage and character while offering contemporary facilities that will make Wollondilly an even better place to live, learn, work and play. It will help ensure the long term viability of the businesses in Picton.

Aside from this, Council owns the land in Picton and doesn’t own land in Wilton, which would further add to the cost of the project.

This will not come at a cost to ratepayers: this project is designed to pay for itself. The Government Services Building will house Council’s Administration Offices as well as feature lettable spaces for other Government agencies or Non-Government service providers to co-locate with Council. This will mean the community will have greater access to a range of Government services in one location and also result in the Government Services Building paying for itself over time through the income generated from the lettable spaces. There is no cost to ratepayers in this stage, and no impact to our services particularly our record investment into road repair. 

Already through this project the Shire Hall refurbishments, Library extension and new Children’s Services building have made a big difference to the precinct and Picton, with the new Performing Arts Centre well underway.

 The construction and operation of the new Government Services Building will support over $730 million in gross value added to the Wollondilly Shire economy. Wollondilly Shire Council’s investment into the new Government Services Building will support significant economic activity in the Wollondilly Shire economy in both its construction and operation phases.

In the first year of operation (FY2028), the new Government Services Building is estimated to support $39 million in economic activity and support over 230 jobs (directly and indirectly).

• The operation of the new Government Services Building will support over $710 million (directly and indirectly) towards GVA over the 25-year operation phase.
• The operation of the new Government Services Building will support an average of 430 jobs each year over the 25-year operation phase.
• The marginal benefit attributed to the increased capacity of the new Government Services Building accounts for 38 per cent of the total economic contribution.

The Government Services Building is an efficient development of two to four storeys with setbacks to reduce the visual scale. It will accommodate Council staff and provide space to co-locate a range of other Government and non-Government services. The gives it the capacity to provide leasable space for other government services, without making the footprint larger and losing the green community space.

Council followed a transparent and public facing planning proposal process to amend the 9m height limit imposed in the Wollondilly Local Environmental Plan (LEP). This process requires external assessment by the NSW Department of Planning who assess the merit of such proposals in making a determination. The change of height was an amendment to the Wollondilly Development Control Plan related specifically to this project, and doesn’t apply to other areas and does not set a precedent for other sites in Picton or Wollondilly. Any developer or property owner may follow the same planning proposal process to request changes to an LEP such as rezoning land categories for future housing etc.