Key point:
Sustainability precinct plan can be a blueprint for other suburbs to become sustainable, too.
On Monday 23 June 2025 Sydney City Councillors voted unanimously to support the Chippendale Community Action Plan proposed by Friends of Chippendale.
The plan can be downloaded here. (You can watch our presentation to Councillors on that link, too.)
The next day, at the direction of the Mayor and CEO, we – Friends of Chippendale – met with Council staff to begin work together. In particular, we’re working out what can, may and may not be done. The second meeting with staff was held on site on Wednesday 9 July 2025.
• Sydney City Council’s policy allows anyone to garden in the footpaths of the city without Council approval. The policy has dramatically changed the city’s streets; they are greener, cooler in summer, grow conversations among strangers, increase street safety and increase biodiversity.
Invitation to evening of legal advice
How the precautionary principle applies to the plan
Two lawyers from the Environmental Defenders Office, Kirsty Ruddock (who ran the 2007 litigation to make Central Park sustainable for energy and water) and Belinda Rayment, will provide a one and a half hour advice about how and for what developments the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act requires sustainability to be achieved.
Time: 630 to 8 pm
Date: Tuesday 30 September 20, 2025
Location: Darlington Activity Centre, 132-134 Shepherd Street, Darlington 2008
Admission: $30 cash payment on entry - donation to the EDO
Donation: The whole of the $30 cash admission payments will be donated to the
Environmental Defenders Office
Limit: First 40 registrants only
Format: A short presentation and then a panel Q & A session on the night
Bookings: To book your donation admission please email with the subject heading:
“Admission donation to EDO legal advice evening”
Event organiser: Michael Mobbs of Friends of Chippendale
Address your booking email to: michael@sustainablehouse.com.au
Volunteers: Please volunteer to the same email address to:
1. Be one of three people on the door to mark off bookings and receive donations
2. Help arrange chairs, tables, projection screen and presentation gear
3. Hand out information about the Friends of Chippendale Sustainability Precinct Plan and the offer of local engineering firm, Event Engineering, to provide consulting services (copy attached)
4. Take minutes for publication on the Friends of Chippendale website.
Notes:
• EDO had a recent significant win, achieving a finding there that the cumulative impact of one development, although minor in annual or longer terms, must be considered when deciding developments. This is a big win in the growing judicial interpretation of the precautionary principle in the EPA Act.
• Example questions about how to apply the principle:
o Is adding 13% to the population of Chippendale in one building a serious cumulative risk?
o Is making raingardens mostly out of steel and concrete a serious cumulative risk?
o Is the suburb’s existing garbage system a serious cumulative risk?
o If the Chippendale Plan is made can it be a blueprint to make other suburbs “sustainable” within the meaning of the EPA Act?
• No food or drinks please.
Engineers say plan is ‘very achievable’
“We have reviewed the proposal, and we confirm the feasibility of the intended prototype project in Chippendale is very achievable with minimal technical hurdles to overcome. Chippendale presents as a technically ideal locations with streetscape, terrain variations for natural storm flow, with low internal traffic flows support the effective constructability and implementation of the planned projects with minimal impacts to existing infrastructure”
What the plan does
The plan seeks $4.5 m in funding works proposed in the plan in this financial year ending June 2026. Of the $4.5m the sum of $1.5m is proposed to begin a trial by which the plan’s goal of ending the suburb’s food waste before 2030 may be achieved.
Each week Chippendale’s population of some 9,000 people wastes roughly 19,000 kg of food. That includes the cafes, pubs, apartments, terraces there.
With narrow streets and lanes, little open space this goal is one we welcome. If we can do it here so can all of Australia’s suburbs.
Helps us to help you by sending your submission in support to the Councillors on our website – www.friendsofchippendale.au Even though the vote for the plan has been won your submission now can help us keep and grow momentum.
The key stage in achieving the plan is now and the next few months – these first funding and project decisions will help staff and our community grow trust in each other. Your submission will help grow this trust. In turn, our example – which we’re documenting on our website and elsewhere – can become the springboard for you where you live.
• Chippendale has over 40 years of community action bringing changes which reduce water, climate, soil and ocean pollution, increase diversity for insects, birds, and cool the city streets with healthy tree canopy and plant growth.
If we win trust, grow confidence in council and our community and the plan is made you can use our example where you live, too.
The motion which produced the vote was moved by Councillor Yvonne Weldon. It shows the rewards of some decades of doing things within the Chippendale community and with Council and some developers:
Council decision:
“By Councillor Weldon
It is resolved that:
(A) Council note the community of Chippendale has a decades long tradition of supporting sustainable projects in the local area including:
collaborating with the former South Sydney Council and a developer to plan, fund and build Peace Park which has edible plants and fruit trees;
Sydney’s Sustainable House which is off-grid for water and energy, has kept all sewage and stormwater on site since 1996 and has become a local and world famous landmark;
successfully advocating for the developer of Central Park to harvest and use rainwater, recycle and use treated sewage, and install and operate a trigeneration system for energy and hot water;
partnering with Council to create, support and promote the City’s Footpath Gardening Policy which sets an Australian example of best practice community engagement;
creating an extensive network of community footpath gardens and engaging 30 to 50 local residents and businesses each week to cultivate and tend them;
implementing rainwater capture in Shepherd, Myrtle, Buckland, Meagher, and Pine Streets to absorb and keep water where it falls on footpaths and roads, using it to irrigate footpath gardens, plants, and trees;
developing an extensive footpath composting system for food waste used by local cafes, bars, apartments and households. The community composts over 400kg of food waste each week and harvests the compost to grow over 1,000 fruit trees, herbs and plants; and
attracting students from neighbouring universities (Sydney, UTS and Notre Dame) who regularly take field trips to study Chippendale’s sustainable infrastructure as part of their courses;
(B) Council also note the Friends of Chippendale community group have developed a Community Action Plan which sets out a vision to further develop Chippendale as a significant and pioneering community sustainability precinct including:
(i) shared zones to enhance pedestrian safety, improve traffic management, reduce noise, and create a more liveable neighbourhood;
(ii) investment in sustainability infrastructure, installing swales for rainwater capture, expanding community composting facilities, and enhancing green spaces to promote biodiversity;
(iii) dual public artwork/sustainability installations that reflect and showcase the area as a community sustainability hub; and
(iv) improving the accessibility of the Pine Street Creative Arts Centre and expanding community programs to include sustainability initiatives alongside creative arts;
and
(C) the Chief Executive Officer be requested to:
provide advice to Council via the CEO Update on the measures proposed in the Friends of Chippendale’s Community Action Plan; and
(ii) provide advice to Council via the CEO Update on the development of a Sustainability Precinct Plan for Chippendale or other suitable initiatives to develop and showcase Chippendale as a community sustainability hub.”
Click to access Chippendale%20Community%20Sustainability%20Precinct.pdf
Thank you Councillor Weldon and all Councillors and staff.
Michael Mobbs