Brookvale Structure Plan

Ethos Urban has worked with Northern Beaches Council to finalise a Structure Plan Brookvale on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Brookvale is the employment centre with the largest offering of industrial and urban services land in the North District. The intensification of employment land has required a range of strategies to protect and manage urban industrial lands, whilst also defining a new town centre for Brookvale.

Supporting one-third of the LGA’s jobs, functions include niche manufacturing and wholesale industries, education, the arts, breweries and distilleries. In addition, the centre is home to one of the largest shopping malls in Greater Sydney. A revised Brookvale Structure Plan Framework has been prepared by Ethos Urban which sets a 15-year vision, including density projections and planning controls. To date, the project has included close collaboration with Council, Atlas Urban Economics & JMT Consulting to further understand the opportunities and constraints, traffic and transport considerations and to test the feasibility of various options. The project has also been presented to various stakeholders across public and private sectors.   

The aspiration for Brookvale is that the centre will be a vibrant, accessible and enlivened place, which will fulfil its role as an employment-focused centre, supporting the local economy with opportunities that are proudly diverse, innovative and creative. The introduction of better public spaces, community services, as well as the integration of active transport and green infrastructure will make the centre more attractive, active and sustainable and built on Brookvale’s gritty character and unique environmental qualities which are highly valued by employees, residents and visitors.

The Brookvale Structure Plan presents a leading example of how to present a clear framework to shape how land use decisions which can be replicated for any precinct planning projects led by Council, State agencies or landowner proponent. This form of strategic planning is best adopted at the early stages for any centres-based or precinct planning projects, in order to establish a shared vision and aspirations for renewal of an area with the community and key stakeholders at the start of the project.

Furthermore, the Structure Plan adopts a range of strategies to protect and manage urban industrial lands, informed by community input and evidence based. The plan goes beyond the common approach to implementing the retain and manage policy by exploring how to unlock new employment floor space through greater planning flexibility and adaptable ground floor spaces in our mixed use areas to accommodate a broader range of employment uses (beyond just retail), such urban manufacturing and creative industries. 

Key features of the Brookvale Structure Plan include:

• Supporting 900 new jobs including high quality office space which is centrally located.
• 5,000sqm town square around the B-line stop for the community to gather including improvements to the public domain.
• Up to 1,350 new homes, delivering more diverse and affordable housing options for the area.
• 2,000–2,500sqm of community facilities in the proposed town square co-located adjacent the existing pedestrian bridge over Pittwater Road.
• Improved pedestrian and bike connectivity throughout Brookvale.