在Parramatta 河边Wentworth Point的新公寓群的居民们说他们正生活在恶梦中。本来这里的规划是建地层建筑群,只容纳11000人,然而如今所有的计划都变了,这里变成了“高层地狱”。有20栋25层以上的高楼将有45000人住在这里。
就算在之前,居民们也经常说这里的交通非常差劲,他们经常被困在自己家里,甚至塞车到无法将车从自己的车道中开出。在高峰时期,单程去附近4公里的Rhodes购物甚至需要1个小时的时间。更加夸张的是,现在只有20%的未来人口住在这里。
“人们本来是想买一处好环境(Wentworth Point临水)的房子来品位生活,没想到变成一场恶梦,”Auburn的前市长Irene Simms说,“所有原来的计划都被打破了,居民们中圈套了。”
本来那个建造一座新桥给居民步行,骑单车,乘坐公交车在Wentworth Point和Rhodes间的计划是非常受欢迎的,当地居民都觉得这有可能能缓解堵塞。
但是此后新洲政府统一开发商再加建1300套公寓在原有的8层楼公寓上。并且加上2栋已经公布的城市激活计划的大楼,又添加了8000个单位。
“现在的计划是Wentworth Point将有20栋高楼– 一个本来是绿色空旷的生活区现在变成了小香港”,居民Pamela Dilworth说,“这样的过度地疯狂开发制造了一个高层地狱,特别是像我们这个在死角的半岛上,堵车的情况将从很差到更差。”
新南威尔士的城市开发设计专家 - Michael Neuman教授说,公寓开发严重超过现有的基础配套设施将会是一个很大的问题。
Wentworth Point社区的市政顾问组的主席Bronwyn Evans说,“开发商正在发横财,而整个社区的现状是公共设施将越来越超负荷运转。在周末的下午,由于Wentworth Point路非常堵塞,我们经常无法进出这里。”
Residents in a new master planned community on the Parramatta River say they are living a nightmare after the original scheme to accommodate about 11,000 people in a low-rise haven has become a "high-rise hell" with plans for 45,000 people in 20 towers of up to 25 storeys.
Already, residents say the traffic is often so bad on the lone road on and off the peninsula of Wentworth Point, in Sydney's west, that they are regularly trapped in their homes, unable to pull out of their driveways. A trip to the nearby shops at Rhodes, four kilometres away, can take up to an hour at peak times. And this was with only 20 per cent of the population having moved in.
"People have been buying a dream of what life was going to be like at Wentworth Point that's turned into a nightmare," said Auburn City councillor and former deputy mayor Irene Simms. "Everything about the original vision has been changed, and they're being ripped off."
A proposal to build a new bridge for pedestrians, bicycles and buses between Wentworth Point and Rhodes was originally welcomed, with locals feeling that might help the congestion.
But then the NSW government agreed developers could build an extra 1300 apartments in towers higher than the previously agreed eight-level limit to help pay for it. Two urban activation precincts were also announced, adding another 8000 apartments.
"It's now planned that Wentworth Point will hold 20 high-rise towers – a little Hong Kong on what was intended to be a lovely green space promontory," said resident Pamela Dilworth. "It's over-development gone mad, creating a high-rise hell, especially since the peninsula is a dead-end, so traffic, which is already a huge problem, is going to get even worse."
Professor Michael Neuman, a specialist in urban development and design at the University of NSW, said it became a huge problem when residential development outstripped the capacity of the existing infrastructure to support it.
"Clearly, it's happening across Sydney but it's uneven," he said. "Good planning provides infrastructure before, or at least concurrently, with the new development and increases in density.
"There's nothing wrong with higher density – if people want it - but you have to provide the infrastructure, and increasing deregulation and privatisation means government has less capacity and the private sector will only do it if there's a profit in it."
But a spokesperson for NSW Planning Minister Pru Goward said the area could accommodate the extra dwellings, provided the right investment was made in supporting infrastructure and improving roads and transport.
"Wentworth Point is fast becoming a vibrant and exciting community," she said.
"Existing and new residents will have access to more than $5 million in new community infrastructure, road improvements and additional public transport when the project is completed sometime around 2017."
Bronwyn Evans, president of another local advocacy group, Wentworth Point Community Central, said: "They're making quite a windfall on something that's been heralded as 'free' and 'a gift' to the community, with the apartments further stretching the inadequate infrastructure. On weekend afternoons we often can't get in and out of Wentworth Point because of congestion on the roads."