Goal: JOC Consulting was commissioned to support engagement with the local community during the early planning stage of Woolworth Group’s proposed mixed-use development ‘Bourke&Young’ in Waterloo, Sydney. The engagement set out to capture community feedback on the proposed project priorities, two different concept schemes and to understand local views ensuring community feedback was considered in future concept plans.
Solution: An extensive engagement program was undertaken in accordance with the IAP2 Framework and City of Sydney Community Engagement Strategy and Community Participation Plan. Given the Inner-city location of the project and the large Chinese community in the area, we tailored our communication approach to reach this cultutallty and linguistically diverse (CALD) community. This included:
- Introductory project email to community and cultural representatives
- A flyer and letterbox drop to inform the adjoining residents and businesses
- Two online webinars with the community having opportunities for Q&A
- An online survey to capture the needs and priorities of locals and visitors, which was translated to both English and Chinese.
- Online briefings with community, cultural and social enterprise representatives
- Stakeholder calls to local First Nations Australian organisations and representatives
- A WeChat group for discussions with the local Chinese community
- A public hotline and project email for community submissions and feedback
Outcome: In total, the pre-planning proposal engagement captured feedback and insights from more than 400 people with thousands more being notified and informed about the project. The findings from the engagement was summarised in a Engagement Outcomes Report, and will be used by Woolworths Group to refine the concept designs and finalise the Planning Proposal being lodged with the City of Sydney.
