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.
History of the scheduled lands
The Scheduled lands were originally subdivided in the late 19th century in a terrace style grid pattern following the establishment of the railway line to Richmond. Each lot is about 550sqm, about 9 metres wide and 61 metres deep.
The Scheduled Lands were subdivided to support the Riverstone meatworks. Until the gazettal of the County of Cumberland Planning Scheme on June, 1951, there were no planning controls applicable to the area. The County of Cumberland Planning Scheme zoned the land now known as the Scheduled Lands for Rural purposes with a minimum area of 5 acres (2 ha) required for the construction of a dwelling.
In 1968 the Blacktown Planning Scheme was gazetted. All the lands known as the Scheduled Lands were zoned under the Blacktown Planning Scheme for rural purposes. The Blacktown Planning Scheme required a minimum area for the construction of a dwelling on this land was either 25 acres (10 ha) or 5 acres (2 ha). Under the Blacktown Planning Scheme there were ‘hardship’ clauses which allowed a dwelling to be built on land with less than the minimum area required, provided a demonstrated case of hardship existed.
On May 14 2010, the Riverstone Scheduled Lands were rezoned from a rural 1a zoning to allow residential development.
Landcom get involved….
As the State Government's land development agency, Landcom has been asked by the Minister to investigate means of facilitating the development of the Scheduled Lands.
In 2005 Landcom started discussions with local landowners representatives group Vineyard Riverstone Marsden Park Development Inc (VRMPD) to help landowners over the obstacles to development.
Working with VRMPD and other landowners, Landcom have developed a model which has the potential to enable effective, co-ordinated and viable development of the Scheduled Lands. The development model enables landowners to pay for the cost of development with part of their land, as an alternative to an upfront payment.
All landowners of land zoned Low density R2 in the Scheduled land will be able to participate in the Landcoms model
