Marsden Park Strategic Town Centre
We are on an exciting journey to plan for a new town centre at Marsden Park.
Council is leading the planning work, in collaboration with the NSW Government, to prepare a new Masterplan and development controls for the Marsden Park Strategic Centre.
The Masterplan will set a long-term vision and strategic directions to make sure future growth is well planned, sustainable and meets the changing needs of our community. It will be an integrated plan that provides employment opportunities, new and diverse housing types, community facilities and recreation areas alongside a future passenger rail line that will ultimately connect to St Marys and the Western Sydney Airport.
This work will review the NSW Government’s 2013 plan for the Town Centre to ensure the scale of development is right for a Strategic Centre, and fully integrated with a future passenger rail transport link.
Background
The Marsden Park Town Centre was first identified in 2013 when the NSW Government finished planning for the new Marsden Park Precinct. The future Town Centre is near the intersection of South Street and Richmond Road, Marsden Park and will provide jobs and services for the new community.
Over the past few years, new development within the area, along with additional infrastructure projects, has reinforced Marsden Park as an essential future hub for the community and employment growth. Council and the NSW Government recognise the vital role of the Town Centre within the region and have identified it as a Strategic Centre in the Greater Sydney Region Plan: A Metropolis of Three Cities, the Central City District Plan and the Blacktown Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020.
In November 2019, the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces announced a new approach to planning for local places, including handing over the planning work for the Marsden Park Town Centre to Council.
Future passenger rail transport link
The NSW Government identified a future passenger rail link between Tallawong and St Marys in the Future Transport Strategy 2056, the Greater Sydney Region Plan: A Metropolis of Three Cities and the Central City District Plan. A corridor for the transport link was already preserved in the then State Environmental Planning Policy (Sydney Region Growth Centres) 2006 from Tallawong to Marsden Park. This corridor will be extended to St Marys and the Western Sydney Airport to provide much needed transport for the growing population in the North West Growth Area.
Marsden Park Transport Corridor
In August 2023, the NSW Government made changes to the State Environmental Planning Policy (Precincts – Central River City) 2021, Appendix 13 - Marsden Park Industrial Precinct Plan and showed the Transport Corridor extension south from the Marsden Park Strategic Centre to the Marsden Park Industrial Precinct.
Discussion Paper
In 2022, we released a Discussion Paper, which can be accessed through link, that provides updated information on Council's planning of the Marsden Park Strategic Centre.
The Discussion Paper provides a means for the Town Centre to progress, and facilitate informed discussions with stakeholders and the community in preparing the vision and masterplan for the Strategic Centre.
Recent Studies
In March 2022, the NSW Government commissioned an independent expert inquiry (the Flood Inquiry) into the preparation for, causes of, response to and recovery from the 2022 flood event across NSW. The outcomes of the Flood Inquiry resulted in residential development being deemed inappropriate in Marsden Park North and the northern areas of West Schofields precincts.
Given this, we have updated the Commercial, retail and residential assessment report in 2024 to consider issues such as:
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the implications of the NSW Government’s Flood Inquiry including potential uses for land in Marsden Park North and West Schofields release areas where residential development is now deemed inappropriate, including the viability of other land uses such as employment-generating uses
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implications of structural change since 2021 and those particularly amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic
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population capacity (residents and workers) estimated by Council that could result from a change to flood planning levels
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consideration of the potential future role, and an estimate of the revised demand for retail and commercial demand floorspace in the Strategic Centre
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benchmarks for retail and commercial floorspace in the Strategic Centre against other comparable centres to gauge the type and mix of development typologies needed to accommodate population and employment growth.
The updated Commercial, retail and residential assessment report 2024 makes similar recommendations and also confirms the ongoing viability of commercial, retail, and residential floorspace within the proposed Marsden Park Strategic Centre. Council endorsed the updated Commercial, retail and residential assessment report 2024 in July 2024.
The findings and recommendations from the updated Commercial, retail and residential assessment report 2024 can be viewed in detail below.
We are continuing discussions with stakeholders and landowners to proceed with the preparation of the draft Masterplan.
Supporting studies
Since commencing the planning of the Marsden Park Strategic Centre, we have commissioned a series of technical studies to inform the masterplan. These commenced in mid-late 2020 and carried out in the context of the evolving COVID 19 pandemic and its impacts on economic activity and the broader community.
These studies and their status are shown in the table below.
Except for the Council endorsed updated Land Use and Market Appraisal 2024, the remainder of the studies are not yet endorsed by Council. Summary findings have been provided in the Discussion Paper for information only and must not be considered as an adopted position of Blacktown City Council. Some of the reports are still being updated to make them current.
You can review the completed studies through the links provided below.
- Gap analysis
- Supplementary Land Capability Assessment – Contamination
- Supplementary Land Capability Assessment – Supplementary Odour Review
- Supplementary Biodiversity and Riparian Review
Infrastructure and servicing strategy - Ongoing, not yet released- Transport strategy - Ongoing, not yet released
- Masterplan - Ongoing, not yet released.
If you need more information or would like to provide information to Council that could inform the planning for the Marsden Park Town Centre, please contact our Strategic Planner, Wint Khin Zaw on 9839 6424 or our Senior Coordinator Strategic Planning, Rachel Agyare on 9839 5960 or email us at council@blacktown.nsw.gov.au