The Scheduled Lands
The Vineyard-Riverstone
Scheduled Lands are in the Blacktown local government area, on the north-western fringe of Sydney. They are around 40 kilometres from the centre of Sydney, around 13 kilometres north-west of Blacktown and around 18 kilometres north-east of Penrith. The location of the Scheduled Lands relative to the Sydney metropolitan region is shown below.
The area of Scheduled Lands that Landcom is investigating includes approximately 3,600 individual lots, distributed among over 500 separate owners, covering a total of about 200 hectares north of Riverstone village and bounded by Riverstone Parade, Bandon Road, Windsor Road, Crown Street and Hamilton Street as shown below.
The 3,600 small lots were originally subdivided in the late 19th century in a terrace style grid pattern following the establishment of the railway line to Richmond. Each small lot is about 550sqm, about 9 metres wide and 61 metres deep.
The Scheduled Lands now form part of the Riverstone Precinct which is one of the first land releases in the North-West Growth Centre as shown below. As a result of its location, the Scheduled Lands has a key role to play in the delivery of essential infrastructure to the remainder of the Riverstone precinct and the wider North-West Growth Sector.
Ongoing Challenges
As the State Government's land development agency with a remit to tackle strategic and complex projects, Landcom has been asked by the Minister to investigate means of facilitating the development of the Scheduled Lands.
There are many challenges associated with co-ordinating the actions of over 500 private landowners to develop mainly un-serviced rural land affected by ecological, infrastructure and other constraints. The difficulties presented by these challenges are compounded by the unusual shape of the existing small lots that makes them too narrow to accommodate typical homes being built in the North West at present.
The Landcom concept development model has been formulated to address these challenges and Landcom is now seeking landowners views on its suitability in relation to their own particular circumstances.
