Community Survey - what you want to see as public facilities in Epping

The Epping Civic Trust recently ran an online survey asking residents about what community facilities they would like to see in the new Town Centre - especially as the population continues to rise. Thank you to everyone who participated and we showed the results at a General Meeting of the Trust in February attended by the three City of Parramatta ward councillors, and Dominic Perrottet MP's Electorate Officer.

Background

There is an opportunity right now for the government (local and state) to look at a large site on the corner of Epping and Blaxland Roads by the bridge. This site (where the old Tuffy Mufflers, and a row of houses used to be) and the site next door (the old Epping Bowling Club) were acquired a number of years ago by a developer called Austino. Whilst a lot of it is zoned for high density as part of the Town Centre activation, the bowling club is zoned RE1 - public open space for recreation. The developer's plans for a very large, 8 tower development across nearly the whole site, was refused by the Department of Planning in late 2019. This gives government the opportunity to create proper community infrastructure for Epping, on the only site of its size right in the centre of Epping.

Results

Over 720 residents, of all ages and a mix of families, couples and singles from across Epping, completed the survey. You can see the full results here but some key take outs are:

* An overwhelmingly majority of residents want government to look at acquiring some or all of the site for community infrastructure use
* If the entire site was acquired, people wanted a mix of uses - including open space and some sporting facilities
* If only the smaller bowling club area was acquired, then more want open public space as it adjourns Forest Park
* People gave terrific feedback in an open comments section on a vision for the site - which really highlights how much infrastructure is needed to really make Epping a leading suburb with its larger population - see the full results for more information on what people said, and thank you to the over 350 people who wrote their thoughts and ideas down.
* The respondents could not see any other sites of the potential of this area for community infrastructure.

The Epping Civic Trust will use the results of the survey to continue to lobby for some visionary leadership for Epping - and the will to make real improvements to the long term future shape of the suburb, and the lives of its residents. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey.