Is this the end for Sydney’s famous auto alley? The plan for 60,000 homes revealed

1 week ago 5

For decades, it was the jingle synonymous with the southern end of Church Street: “Come on out to Parramatta, and walk down auto alley”. With multiple car dealerships lining the busy road, it was the go-to spot for generations who wanted to purchase a vehicle.

But a new report envisions a very different future for the street: 15,100 new dwellings in buildings up to 15 storeys along a “grand, tree-lined boulevard with cycleways and wider pedestrian paths”.

Expanding Parramatta, a report which will be unveiled at Tuesday’s Housing Now! conference by Business Western Sydney, details four areas surrounding the Parramatta CBD, including auto alley, that could be transformed into several neighbourhoods to deliver up to 60,000 new homes.

The areas recommended for more housing are all within two kilometres of Parramatta CBD. They include Parramatta north, along Church Street, but don’t include the site slated for rezoning by the state government. It has 356 dwellings, but the report says it has the potential to reach up to 13,100.

From Parramatta River to James Ruse Drive, Riverside East has been envisioned as a “vibrant precinct” that could provide 32,000 homes, while the Harris Park and Rosehill precinct could have 16,700 dwellings.

“I think in the middle of a housing crisis, now that we’ve got great public transport in Parramatta, light rail, it just seems like we’ve missed something,” David Borger, executive director of Business Western Sydney, said. “There’s an opportunity to live really close to a city centre with lots of good jobs and amenities.”

From ‘arse end’ to beautiful boulevard

Borger believes auto alley is already in the midst of change, with high-rise homes and hotels under construction, but that more can be done.

“South Parramatta is a terrible entry to the city. It’s treeless and hot, and the model of car retailing is changing … there’s no reason why we couldn’t have apartments above showrooms,” he said, calling it the “arse end of the city”.

Murray Donaldson of Urbis, a planning consultancy firm which partnered with Business Western Sydney to deliver the report, said additional housing would help Parramatta become a global city.

“What we see around the world with global cities is that they have both employment areas ... but also these neighbourhoods of high-density housing and with high amenity,” he said.

While Parramatta Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter said he understood the pressure on the state government to provide more housing, he believed delivering infrastructure was just as important.

“What I don’t want is the jobs crisis of today to become the jobs crisis of tomorrow. So when we’re thinking about additional density in areas such as auto alley, we’ve got to make sure how that also impacts on our jobs target,” he said.

“I just feel that we are not getting the right amount or the fair share of infrastructure expenditure in western Sydney compared to other places in the state.”

The Sydney Morning Herald has opened a bureau in Parramatta. Email [email protected] with news tips.