'Green space buffer': Sydney cemetery approved, as Penrith plan halted

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'Green space buffer': Sydney cemetery approved, as Penrith plan halted

By Megan Gorrey

If you want to get a cemetery approved in western Sydney, it helps to choose a location that is close to public transport and set aside for development.

That's what emerges from two planning decisions that cleared the path to build a 136,000 burial space cemetery north of Campbelltown, but halted plans for 88,000 burial plots near Penrith.

An artist's impression of the cemetery proposed for Varroville, near Campbelltown.

An artist's impression of the cemetery proposed for Varroville, near Campbelltown.

The Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust proposed the two non-denominational cemeteries in a bid to provide enough burial spaces to address the shortage in the western suburbs.

Both proposals faced opposition from councils, heritage groups and residents. But former planning minister Anthony Roberts stripped Campbelltown and Penrith councils of powers to decide on the contentious plans when he referred those decisions to the state's independent planning authority.

The NSW Independent Planning Commission on Monday directed the Sydney Western City Planning Panel to approve plans to build Varroville Crown Cemetery on rural land known as the Scenic Hills.

However, the panel last week said the cemetery, chapel and function centre planned for a 42-hectare area on the site of the Wallacia Golf Course, nearly 20 kilometres from Penrith, should not go ahead.

The cemetery will have room for 136,000 burial plots.

The cemetery will have room for 136,000 burial plots.

Macquarie Fields Labor MP Anoulack Chanthivong, who is a former Campbelltown councillor, said the cemetery at Varroville would destroy one of the "last green vistas" in south-west Sydney.

“The Scenic Hills provide a crucial green space buffer in a city that is being hit hard by overdevelopment,” Mr Chanthivong said.

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Opponents had long voiced concerns that the site was not suitable for a cemetery. They feared the project would negatively impact the area's European heritage, particularly the 1850s Varroville homestead that will sit in the midst of the cemetery, and increase traffic congestion.

But commissioners Dianne Leeson, Ross Carter and Adrian Pilton found the cemetery was in the public interest.

That was because the plan addressed the need for more cemetery space close to transport – which includes the M5 motorway and train stations at Minto, Ingleburn and Edmonson Park – and to areas identified for urban growth, the commissioners said.

The proposal also includes 36 hectares of public open space.

Any potential heritage impacts to the Scenic Hills and Varroville homestead would be minimal and were "likely to result in positive and improved outcome and management strategy for the surrounding landscape and outbuildings".

The decision was welcomed by Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust chief executive Peter O’Meara, who said the site would help address the challenges of declining burial space.

“This approval ensures the interment practices and beliefs of all religious and cultural groups are respected and provided for," he said.

But Mr Chanthivong said: "The disastrous decision to approve the cemetery will set in motion a devastating domino effect of new development applications, with the green rolling hills set to be further swallowed up by an extensive road network, function centre and cafes."

Separately, the commissioners found that the Wallacia cemetery would have "significant social impacts on the community ... specifically it will have a permanent impact on the existing local character of the village of Wallacia and the community’s sense of place".

The commissioners said there were "issues around the suitability of the site": "Specifically, the proposed scale of the development is too large in the context of the locality being the village of Wallacia and the site is relatively removed from the population base it is proposed to serve.

"[The site] is not easily accessible via public transport and the proposed benefits associated with publicly accessible open space are unlikely to be realised by the local community."

A spokesman for the cemeteries trust was "disappointed" by the commission's decision and said the organisation was "reviewing our options as Sydney needs more burial spaces".

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