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More parking and a new community space for Rose Bay

A development application to redevelop the Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay car park was approved by the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel on 9 November 2023.

Council plans to redevelop the Wilberforce Avenue, Rose Bay car park site into a multi-storey parking facility and community centre, with small complementary retail spaces. For a summary of the proposed project take a look at this fact sheet.

The redevelopment addresses longstanding demand for more parking in the area and more community space, and ensures the ongoing economic viability of the Rose Bay commercial centre.

These issues have been repeatedly raised by the community as key priorities for Council to address in Rose Bay, including most recently during consultation for the Rose Bay Place Plan, which was undertaken between March and May 2021. We:

  • Received 228 submissions from the community (1-19 March)
  • Conducted on-site interviews with local businesses
  • Ran on-site intercept surveys at community and business events such as ‘A Rose Bay Evening’ (10 March)
  • Held three two-hour pop-up engagement sessions in Lyne Park (6 March), on New South Head Road and Dover (11 March) Road (10 March)
  • Analysed data from a range of past studies, strategic plans and documents to understand community needs and aspirations

Feedback relating to a need for additional car parking for residents, commuters, shoppers and businesses – in Rose Bay Centre particularly – was a key theme of the consultation.

Wilberforce Avenue car park highlighted in red

Find out more

In 2022 Council officers and project architects held a range of meetings, both in-person and online, as part of our pre-DA community consultation on the following dates:

Concept design

A high quality concept design has been developed by architects AJ&C and Oculus, featuring:

  • A modern, efficient and generously proportioned car park providing more than double the existing public car spaces (200 compared to 95 currently), as well as 29 spaces for the new retail and community centre uses.
  • A lightweight civic scale building which will transform the current at-grade car park into an architectural centrepiece of the Rose Bay Village.

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  • Sustainability initiatives including green walls, EV charging stations, mixed mode ventilation, increased urban canopy from street and plaza plantings and rainwater harvesting for use in Pannerong Reserve
  • A new one way low-speed laneway (Ian Lane) linking Wilberforce Avenue and Dover Road
  • A new terrace on the Wilberforce Avenue frontage linked to Pannerong Reserve by a raised pedestrian crossing, which will become a meeting and gathering place for the community
  • A new state-of-the-art community centre over two levels and small ground floor presence to enable a full range of activities
  • Retail floor space of 316m2 to assist in activating the new building
  • New accessible public toilets and parents room to provide a much needed facility in Rose Bay Village
  • New public art

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Next steps

Following DA approval, Council will now move forward with the selection of a project manager and builder to construct the project, as well as ensuring all conditions of consent needed to be fulfilled prior to construction commencing are met.

Council will also finalise plans to provide replacement car parking prior to construction commencing.

Further updates to the community and businesses will be provided as we move towards construction commencing, likely to be from mid-2024. To stay informed of future engagement opportunities sign up for Your Say Woollahra.