Brooklyn Place Plan
Work is currently underway on the Brooklyn place plan. The purpose of this plan, designed in collaboration with community stakeholders, is to improve the functionality and appeal of the Brooklyn village centre. It will include clear and practical actions for the future.
Council wants to engage the community of Brooklyn early in the place planning process and has put together a discussion paper to support this, as well as an online survey to canvass your feedback.
Background research on both Brooklyn and place planning has been provided to ensure an informed discussion may be had.
The questions posed through the discussion paper and online survey are intended to guide your thoughts to help shape the process used to develop the upcoming place plan. As a first step, Council is interested in your feedback on two specific areas:
A CLEAR PLACE VISION FOR BROOKLYN to steer, inform and prioritise future actions.
From Council’s perspective, there is no clear, agreed vision for what Brooklyn could or should be – and so it is difficult to make decisions about potential changes to the Brooklyn village centre via a place planning process if we don’t have a long-term goal to work towards. As such, Council has used community feedback from the master planning process to create a draft vision for Brooklyn. This draft and associated guiding principles need to be tested with the community.
ACTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION to address key issues raised by the community over time.
Through this discussion paper, Council also wants to test the community’s view on the drafted actions for consideration – to see if we’ve addressed the big picture actions that need to be undertaken to resolve the functioning of the Brooklyn village centre.
Documents
- Discussion paper summary – Brooklyn place planning overview - 3MB
- Discussion paper – Brooklyn place planning – best version for printing - 38MB
- Discussion paper – Brooklyn place planning – best version to read online for viewing maps - 37MB
Have your Say – survey results
In April and May 2021 we invited the community to have your say on the Discussion Paper – Brooklyn place planning. We shared background research on both Brooklyn and place planning to ensure an informed discussion may be had and invited the community to complete the online survey to test the draft vision and guiding principles.
Council letter box dropped survey promotional material to all residences in Brooklyn, Dangar Island and Milsons Passage. Email correspondence was also forwarded to civic organisations in the Lower Hawkesbury area inviting stakeholders and residents to complete the survey. Below is a snapshot of the results.
A total of 234 surveys were completed both online and in paper-based form with respondents spending an average of 18 minutes to complete the survey online.
Stakeholders
| Respondent group | Number of responses |
|---|---|
| Resident of Brooklyn | 97 |
| Resident of Dangar Island or Milsons Passage | 91 |
| Resident of elsewhere in the Hornsby Shire | 12 |
| Resident of Little Wobby, Mooney Mooney, Cheero Point, Cogra Bay or Bar Point | 25 |
| Own or operate a business in Brooklyn | 15 |
| Work in Brooklyn | 21 |
| Visitor or tourist to Brooklyn | 11 |
| Other | 19 |
Please note: Total number of responses exceeds total number of respondents as participants were able to select more than one answer e.g. resident of Brooklyn and own or operate a business in Brooklyn.
The above figures constitute a 13% response rate from all Brooklyn residents and a 28% response rate of residents of Dangar Island and Milsons Passage.
What is your favourite place in Brooklyn? (open ended response)
The top three mentions were:
- McKell Park
- Flat Rock Point/foreshore walk between McKell Park and Parsley Bay
- The baths/pool (Lower McKell Park)
What is your favourite thing to do in Brooklyn? (open ended response)
The top three mentions were:
- Walking and/or bush walking
- Dining, cafes, coffee, pub and/or eating out
- Socialising
Agreement with guiding principles
Survey respondents were asked if they agreed with a guiding principle and if they did not agree they were required to explain why to progress through the survey. This approach was taken because understanding why a respondent disagreed with a principle was considered to facilitate a greater understanding of the issues involved. The percentage agreement results are considered to represent good to very good agreement with the guiding principles – with agreement generally above 70%.
The following table outlines the collective level of agreement with each principle (in descending order of agreement) from survey respondents.
| Guiding principle | Percentage agreement |
|---|---|
| A town centre that celebrates and preserves its connection to the river, the environment and its heritage. | 92% |
| A town centre that is well maintained, attractive and with community custodianship. | 88% |
| A town centre that supports local business. | 85% |
| A town centre that is walkable, integrated, connected and active. | 80% |
| A town centre that incorporates an appropriate community facility as a hub. | 79% |
| A town centre that functions as a transport interchange. | 71% |
| A town centre that maximises benefits from visitors for locals. | 69% |
| A town centre that is a vibrant and welcoming visitor destination with an active spine along Dangar Road. | 69% |
Agreement with the draft vision
The draft vision, as exhibited, was:
“The Brooklyn town centre protects its unique natural environment and celebrates its rich heritage and waterfront village atmosphere.
It functions well as a transport interchange between river, road and rail, while supporting local business and maximising the benefits of its visitor economy for the local population.
The Brooklyn town centre has a vibrant spine linking McKell Park and Bridge Street along Dangar Road.”
Agreement with the draft vision by survey respondents was relatively low at 56%.
Agreement with high-priority actions
In testing a path forward for the Brooklyn place planning process, 64% of respondents agreed with the suggested high priority actions within the Discussion Paper.
General feedback and comments
Respondents submitted over 1,400 individual comments as part of the survey – either through the questions posed with an open ended response, or when disagreeing with a yes/no question. As flagged in the Discussion Paper – car parking and the resolution of this issue within the village centre remains front and centre and was the number one issue raised by survey respondents.
Next steps
It is anticipated that a report will be brought to Council in July with the results of the survey used as a foundation to develop the Brooklyn place plan.
There will be further opportunities throughout the place planning process for you to get involved and help shape the future of Brooklyn.