Council endorses a 1,907-home East Village and sends it for a Gateway determination

At its last ordinary meeting of 2025, on Tuesday 9 December, Campbelltown City Council resolved to endorse the modified “Menangle Park (East Village)” planning proposal — 1,907 dwellings on about 19 hectares beside Menangle Park station — and to forward it to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure for a Gateway determination. That was resolution 338/2025, carried 8 votes to 2.

What is proposed, and where

The site is 22 separate parcels bounded by Cummins Road, Fitzpatrick Street, Racecourse Avenue and Taber Street — inside Menangle Park 2563, Campbelltown LGA, not Menangle 2568 in Wollondilly. The proposed Woolworths-anchored town centre sits to the east, across Cummins Road.

The proposal would rezone the land to a mix of R3, R4, RE1 and C3, lift maximum heights from 8.5 metres to 11, 12 and 22 metres, lift floor space ratios from 0.55:1 to as high as 2.2:1, and remove the minimum lot size. Existing R2 zoning permits about 340 dwellings, so 1,907 is an uplift of roughly 1,567.

The applicant is Michael Brown Planning Strategies, acting for a number of separate landowners. It is not a Dahua Group proposal, and Council notes the land is in fragmented ownership.

How the number moved

The proposal was lodged with Council on 19 May 2022 and reported three times. In November 2022 staff recommended refusal of a 2,179-dwelling scheme, described in that report as a 540 per cent increase over the 340 dwellings then permitted; Council deferred. In June 2025 staff reported that a 2,073-dwelling yield “is not supported” and sought a significantly reduced yield closer to the release area’s 45 dwellings per hectare; Council deferred again. The December 2025 version is smaller and lower: 1,907 dwellings, open space up from 2.4 to 4.1 hectares, maximum apartment heights cut from 6–8 storeys to 3–6, and 95 fewer terraces.

The vote, and the objections

Greens councillors Jayden Rivera and Tao Triebels voted against. South West Voice records Cr Rivera’s grounds: train frequency, an unelectrified line, a small platform, and a nearest public school “12 minutes away by car or 4- to 50 minutes by bus”. Three councillors left the chamber on declared interests and took no part.

Two of those points are worth putting numbers to. On a weekday, Transport for NSW’s trip planner shows 20 trains north and 22 south at Menangle Park — broadly hourly with peak extras, not a fixed hourly service, and the widest weekday gaps run to 76 minutes northbound and 89 southbound. On schools, Menangle Park addresses currently sit in the Douglas Park Public School intake area, about 9 km away; the schools and childcare guide and getting around cover both in detail.

South West Voice reports Cr Cameron McEwan supporting the scheme as a good standard for other developers, and Mayor Darcy Lound saying Council needed to signal support for more housing “but it has to be a good development”.

The part Council flagged

The December 2025 report states that funding for the infrastructure the proposal would need “has not been fully detailed and documented”, and that the proponent’s infrastructure delivery plan was incomplete. Because ownership is fragmented, Council expects contributions and works-in-kind rather than planning agreements — which is why the resolution requires a draft amendment to the Menangle Park Contributions Plan and a draft development control plan before any public exhibition.

The proposal’s traffic work forecasts more than 750 extra vehicle trips in each peak hour and the Spring Farm Parkway / North-South Collector Road intersection at Level of Service F in both peaks once that traffic is added. Later modelling done at Transport for NSW’s request, and reported in the proponent’s document as approved by the agency, concluded the uplift would operate at Level of Service D or better to 2051 under an assumed future road network.

Where it stands now

On 21 September 2026 the NSW Planning Portal record, PP-2024-2724, still showed it “Under Assessment” at the “Gateway Determination” stage, with no Gateway decision. The timetable in the planning proposal Council endorsed had a Gateway determination in March 2026 and public exhibition in April–May 2026; neither has happened. No East Village item has come before Council since: the only mention in its 2026 agendas and minutes, February to September, is February’s routine confirmation of the December minutes. The masterplan tracker carries the current position.

What to watch

Three things, in order: a Gateway determination appearing on the Planning Portal record; the draft contributions plan amendment and draft DCP returning to Council; and then public exhibition, which is the first point at which residents can make a submission. Until the first of those happens, nothing here is buildable. What is buildable and buyable today is covered in the what it costs guide.