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Willoughby City Strategy

What is the Willoughby City Strategy?

The Willoughby City Strategy is a long-term vision and plan for the future which helps to guide decision making and planning. The aim of the strategy is to set a direction for the whole Willoughby community, not just Council. It is also used as a guide all other plans and policies.

The strategy was adopted by Council on 27 March 2006, and is currently being reviewed.

Download the existing strategy:  Willoughby City Strategy - 2,263 KB

Community Workshops

Council held two community forums in early June 2009. These forums provided some very useful feedback on the exisiting strategy and were used to guide the review.

Outcomes of Community Forum Day Session, 2 June 2009

Outcomes of Community Forum Evening Session, 4 June 2009


Willoughby City Strategy 2006

To develop the exisiting Willoughby City Strategy, many different people were asked what they would like Willoughby to look and feel like in fifteen years.

Using these responses, the Strategy identifies:

  • What the community values about the area
  • Important issues, trends and challenges
  • Goals for the future
  • Ways to reach these goals

The top six things that people like about Willoughby now are:

  • Convenient access to the CBD, bushland, transport, services, and central Sydney
  • Variety of shopping available in a handy location which saves time
  • Bushland which allows better quality of life and the chance to protect the environment
  • Access to services and facilities such as medical, transport, educational, which is linked to convenience
  • Open space and public space which is family orientated and provides a balance to high density housing and a better lifestyle
  • Safety of pedestrians and from crime.

The top six things that people want Willoughby to be in the future are:

  • Well serviced by public transport
  • A family friendly place
  • An environmentally friendly, ecologically minded place
  • An area with a range of services and facilities
  • A well planned and pleasant urban area
  • An area with entertainment, restaurants and cafes.

There are complex issues which will require residents, businesses, Council, government and other agencies to co-operate to solve them.

The development of the Willoughby City Strategy involved the consultation of a broad range of community, Council and institutional stakeholders. This included surveys, outreach activities, engagement at local events and markets, on-line opportunities for comments and feedback, workshops with Council staff and Councillors, and a series of linked forums engaging community members and other key stakeholders over several months. Download the  Consultation Outcomes - 504 KB.

Discussion papers

You may like to download some of the discussion papers written to address local issues and provide guidance in deciding Willoughby's future.

Fact sheets

These fact sheets were produced to examine the main issues affecting the City of Willoughby now and into the future, and to provide background information to the Strategy (the fact sheets are a shorter version of the above discussion papers):