A business park and extended medical precinct around Blacktown Hospital could become the ‘‘employment spine’’ of Blacktown Council’s masterplan for the area’s CBD, and create up to 40,000 new jobs.
Blacktown mayor Alan Pendleton presented the council’s masterplan for the Blacktown city centre today at an event to discuss the future growth of western Sydney.
The first stage of the plan will create a 17-hectare land corridor for future commercial office space in the CBD, followed by a business park in the second stage of development.
See artists impressions of the what the business park may look like below:
About 60 per cent of Sydney’s total population growth over the next 25 years will occur in western Sydney.
The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils has predicted a job shortage across the region will grow from the present 182,000 to 290,000 by 2036.
Cr Pendleton said the long-term potential of Blacktown was undervalued by the current metropolitan plan for Sydney, as the area was not recognised as a regional city along with Parramatta, Penrith and Liverpool.
He said the masterplan could help reduce the jobs deficit by up to 16 per cent.
‘‘The Blacktown City Centre at the moment is an unknown quantum,’’ he said.
‘‘Presumptions are still being made about its viability that ignores its long-term potential.
‘‘There is a very real need to create employment diversity in western Sydney, particularly for Blacktown,’’ Cr Pendleton said.
‘‘We must bridge the employment gap.’’
Blacktown now:
- Contributes $10.7 billion in Gross Regional Product, an increase of 38 per cent over five years.
- About 10,600 business in Blacktown are sole traders.
- Has the largest employment lands coverage in NSW at 3000 hectares.
- About half of its population of workers is under 30 years of age.