Infrastructure supports the three cities

A Metropolis of Three Cities provides the spatial foundation for more effective and efficient planning for city-shaping infrastructure and enhanced utilisation of infrastructure.

The three-city metropolis vision moves away from the historical radial focus on the Eastern Harbour City to a new focus requiring more interconnections within each city and between the three cities. This will facilitate greater opportunities for learning, labour participation, industry growth and development, and access to housing and services across Greater Sydney and create a 30-minute city.

This critical spatial shift will transform future infrastructure plans by providing a specific approach to the infrastructure needs, timing and response required for each city. While each of the three cities will require new infrastructure, the focus will vary according to:

• existing infrastructure and services, capacity and industry and housing activity
• existing levels of committed investment
• the time scale of development.

For example, the Eastern Harbour City has a significant rebuilding program in place, together with initiatives to make better use of existing assets and adapt them to new technologies (refer to Objective 18). The Central River City is also undergoing a rebuilding program in a high-growth environment which requires existing infrastructure to be optimised (refer to Objective 19). Major new infrastructure will be required for the Western Parkland City, where the focus will be on planning growth and sequencing new infrastructure and services to support shaping a new connected city (refer to Objective 20).

A Metropolis of Three Cities must form the basis of future infrastructure decisions if future investment is to better connect the three cities as well as support major economic drivers such as:

• digital technology, providing international gateways for business interactions
• transport services, enabling the movement of goods and labour participation
• the location and timing of critical support infrastructure, such as health and education facilities for job creation and agglomeration benefits.

To deliver a 30-minute city, connections to existing infrastructure in all the three cities need to be improved. Importantly, transport corridors and locations for new centres need to be safeguarded for future infrastructure investments.

Planning decisions need to support new infrastructure in each city - including cultural, education, health, community and water infrastructure - to fairly balance population growth with infrastructure investment. Decisions are required to equitably enhance local opportunities, inclusion and connection to services. In this way infrastructure provision can move from a focus on network-based services to a place-based service approach.