Under the scheme,announced in December amid skyrocketing concern about the housing supply and affordability crisis strangling Sydney,the Australian Turf Club (ATC) would sell the prized 60-hectare site to developers in deals worth at least $5 billion.
Rosehill racecourse will be relocated to make way for tens of thousands of new homes and an additional Metro West station.
The ATC would in turn spend some of the proceeds on massively upgrading racing,training,member and spectator facilities at other venues in NSW,and bank the rest for a rainy day.
The idea was hailed by Premier Chris Minns as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to build more homes and secure the future of the industry. The premier is right. For those in doubt,we would encourage you to look at Rosehill on Google Earth and question whether the vast area in its current form is truly its best use in 2024.
Debate about Rosehill took a dangerous turn this week when a Parramatta councillor said the racecourse would become a “ghetto” under the ATC proposal. This was shrill,embarrassing and dangerous language. As theHerald’s Sydney editor Michael Koziol,the broader debate over the Minns government’s housing reforms is stretching credibility in its claims and deploying inflammatory,scaremongering rhetoric.
A concerted effort is now underway to kill the Rosehill sale,and with it the opportunity to build more desperately needed homes smack bang above the $25 billion Metro West rail line. Some of those opposed to the proposal are doing what politicians so often do:acting in their own interests instead of the broader public good.
Some trainers such as the are. Waterhouse,who is based at Randwick,not Rosehill,is using her significant influence in the industry to build opposition to the sale.
TheHerald last year agreed with Waterhouse that extending the tenure of the then Racing NSW chairman Russell Balding for a further two years,well beyond the maximum 10 years for statutory authorities,was a bad idea.
But on Rosehill we strongly disagree with Waterhouse,as well as Rosehill-based trainers Chris Waller,Lee Curtis and Richard Freedman,who have also made public comments criticising the proposed sale.
In fairness,the ATC has so far not handled the politics of this proposal well. Members felt blindsided and do not think they have enough information about the alternative facilities on offer. The ATC board is wavering. If the sale went to a vote of the membership today,it would probably fail. This would not be in Sydney’s interests.
The ATC,the Minns government and other stakeholders must come together to find a way to make the Rosehill redevelopment happen. One option,as reported today by theHerald’s state political editor Alexandra Smith,is for racing authorities to relocate Rosehill racecourse to the brick pit at Sydney Olympic Park.
The idea makes sense. The area remains terribly underutilised,the brick pit site is adjacent to the existing rail station and is a five-minute walk from a soon-to-be-built Metro station,and Sydney Olympic Park is much closer to the CBD than other options floated by the ATC for upgraded facilities such as Warwick Farm. There is one small problem:the brick pit is home to the endangered green and golden bell frog.
The frog may prove an insurmountable problem but the Sydney Olympic Park idea is certainly worth exploring. The scale of the housing crisis and the rare opportunity Rosehill affords Sydney demands creative thinking from all levels of government,and for the self-interest of others to finally take a back seat.
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