We all felt the blow to Sydney’s night-time economy when the NSW Government introduced the lockout laws in 2014. Since then countless venues have closed, former party precincts have become ghost towns and the four-year-long campaign Keep Sydney Open has swapped street parades for an altogether more formal party in government. (They’re looking for members!)
If you live in Sydney, this is nothing new. In November 2016, you told us that Sydney is one of the least-fun places to live, thanks in part to feeling disengagement with our city’s arts and culture scene. Only ten per cent of you thought there was ‘always something fun to do in Sydney’ – a shocking percentage that inspired our 52 Weeks of Culture campaign.
So what now? Without magic beans to reverse the State’s lockout laws, what can we do to create a vibrant after-dark culture, to bring people of all ages back to our streets at night?
Long before the lockout laws came into effect, the City of Sydney was working to create a more diverse nightlife. They’ve spent years in consultation with residents and small business owners – and now they want to hear from you about three key proposals that could reignite Sydney’s nightlife.
Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Miller explains that it’s “effectively calling for a change of the rulebook”. When we sat down with Miller at Sydney Town Hall, the Council had just released their proposed reforms to the Development Control Plans – or DCP. “In the simplest terms, a change in the DCP is an opportunity for people to tell Council what types of things can go on, for how long, and where.
“We acknowledge that whenever something happens in a precinct or a town, that we all have to live together – and in order to create that kind of harmony we all have to follow the same rules. So if somebody wanted to put a drumming school next to my house that operates from 6am-2am, then the rulebook would protect me from having to suffer kids learning to drum all day and all night.
“But that said, if people started to say, ‘hey, this is actually a really great place to learn how to drum because it’s already noisy, and you know what, you actually don’t mind so much,’ then the change in the rulebook gives you an opportunity to say that.”
So what’s up for discussion?
There are three key points the City of Sydney is proposing:
- Expanding trading times – such as shops open till 10pm
- Empty spaces being used for arts and culture – without need for extra approval
- Better relationships between existing ‘noisy’ venues and new residential property, and vice versa
We’ll break it down into easier, digestible chunks.
It could mean more shops and services open at night
One of the key propositions is to extend retail trading times. If you own a hairdressing salon, what would it mean to your clients if you could open until 9 or 10pm on a regular basis? Perhaps you’d like to host local musicians in your shop on a weeknight?
In the new discussion paper, called ‘An Open and Creative City’, it outlines proposed changes such as giving grocery stores, bookshops, pharmacies, dry cleaners, travel agents and banks the opportunity to trade later – from 7am-10pm every day of the week.
This would apply within the City of Sydney suburbs, so the main streets in Newtown, Glebe, Pyrmont, Darlinghurst, Potts Point, Surry Hills, Redfern, Waterloo and the city centre.
Deputy Lord Mayor says, “We recognise that different cultures have different expectations of night-time as well, like in Haymarket in Chinatown it’s not unusual to see babies and small kids out having dinner at 9-10 o’clock, and that’s just a reflection of the rhythm of their life.
“If people are starting work at midday and not finishing until eight, they’re going to want to eat at nine, and they might want to do their grocery shopping up until midnight. So it’s hearing about those kinds of needs and saying are we, through the rulebook, allowing enough opportunity for these different types of scenarios, and what kind of scenarios do people actually want.”
It could mean more pop-up arts and culture venues, without the paperwork
What if local musicians or theatre groups could fill those empty shop fronts on Oxford Street with offbeat performances? What if you could stumble across a dance class or photography workshop that’s taking up residence in the Cross for summer?
To encourage more cultural events and activities, the City plans to create a guide as to which events – such as public talks or small-scale live music – could take place without development consent.
The definition of ‘small-scale cultural uses’ includes live entertainment – musical, theatrical, comedy or dance. It also includes display or production of artwork, craft, design, media or images. And if you’ve been looking for a rehearsal studio – it includes that too.
“This whole process is as much for punters as for people who have really interesting creative night-time cultural ideas or business ideas because the night-time economy is very much built off the back of people who have irregular working hours and that’s why it’s so important,” says Cllr Miller.
“We’re really aware if there aren’t a lot of late night venues, there aren’t a lot of late night jobs, and if you’re at uni you need that kind of work to live in the city.”
It could mean more protection for legacy music venues – and homeowners
Under the new changes, the City would apply the ‘agent of change’ principle when managing noise impacts, meaning that new residential developments near existing entertainment venues would need to be designed and built to ensure residents are not impacted by the venue’s noise.
Homeowner? New entertainment venues would be required to protect existing residential properties from any noise. It’s all about being a good neighbour.
“It’s also important to engage different groups of people, and particularly young people, to know that if things aren’t working well for them they need to tell us. If we’re not aware of it then we can’t find out more, we can’t fix it. People have to take full advantage of the fact that if what’s happening is not what they want, then here’s an avenue to try and address that, that’s our job.”
Where does it impact?
The proposed reforms would impact the City of Sydney suburbs, seen here in this map.
So how do you give your feedback?
The proposed reforms can be found in the discussion paper, ‘An Open and Creative City’. You’re invited to have your say before Wednesday December 13. There is a three-part questionnaire that you can respond to if any or all of these proposed reforms make you feel happy or sad or confused. It’s simple. We did it in less than ten minutes.
“We’ve done all of the really important groundwork, research, strategy,” says the Deputy Lord Mayor. “We’ve spoken to many stakeholders and so we have a really solid foundation and direction of where we want to take it – this is like the last step where we can actually start implementing these types of policy and changes.”
You’ve had your say. Now what?
We wait. The reforms need to be approved (and the more feedback they have the better the Council understands what residents what). If adopted by Council, the planning controls will be submitted to the Greater Sydney Commission, likely to be in late 2018. City staff will consider feedback from this process and prepare new planning controls, which will also go on exhibition.
“While it’s frustrating having to wait – and I don’t think anybody feels that frustration more than we do – it’s taken us a year to understand that it’s sort of like Tetris, you have to fit the pieces into place to actually make it happen,” says Cllr Miller. “It’s really important to make sure that it happens well and that there aren’t unintended consequences and that no one gets hurt.”
TL;DR?
We get it, there’s a lot of jargon. Watch this short video from ‘agent’ Miller and ‘agent’ Scully who break down the key proposal changes.
Remember, have your say before Wednesday December 13. It only takes ten minutes.
We looked into the future and here's what we found: 10 developments coming to Sydney by 2027.