Key maritime industries are seeking an urgent meeting with Premier Mike Baird to safeguard vital ports and marine infrastructure against full-scale commercial and residential development on prime harbourside land around the inner city Bays Precinct.
And some are accusing the government's developer arm, UrbanGrowth NSW, of freezing them out and ignoring their concerns.
UrbanGrowth is seeking to "transform" the 5.5 kilometres of prize waterfront west of the Harbour Bridge, running from White Bay and Glebe Island around to the Sydney fish market.
But in a letter sent to Mr Baird on Wednesday, the 17 companies - which include cruise ship operators, bulk-goods shippers, tour operators and marine engineers - warn that "critical services" based in the Bays Precinct are at risk, and cannot be relocated.
They highlight the huge environmental cost of the potential loss of deep-water ports at Glebe Island, adjacent to the Anzac Bridge, warning this will force many more trucks onto Sydney's already choked roads. And they flag the danger of overlooking the vital role that smaller maritime operators play in maintaining and building harbour infrastructure such as new ferry wharves.
"Decisions being made now cannot be reversed" the chief executives, directors and chairs of the 17 companies warn.
"Our city is at the start of a construction boom, with over $70 billion of major infrastructure, urban renewal and transport projects planned for the inner city in coming years ... Without marine delivery into port facilities in Sydney Harbour, an additional 5000 truck movements every week will be added to congestion on major roads and highways."
A map of the Bays Precinct Urban Renewal Program. Photo: UrbanGrowth NSW
They warn that "current plans for the Bays Precinct redevelopment may extinguish port capability in Sydney without direct consultation with port users or genuine assessment of the consequences".
A key target of the letter appears to be the state government's development agency, UrbanGrowth NSW.
Several signatories told Fairfax that while UrbanGrowth had originally seemed on-side with protecting critical marine infrastructure in the precinct, that commitment had faded as talk of redeveloping the area as an "innovation district" has ramped up, spearheaded by talks with Google about a possible move to the disused White Bay power station nearby.
They accuse UrbanGrowth of quietly nurturing plans to place multistorey residential and commercial towers on Glebe Island, where the bulk handling wharves are situated.
Mal Hiley, head of marine engineering firm Waterway Constructions, said longstanding marine industries around the Bays Precinct were happy to co-exist with new development but feared being driven out.
The area could be hugely lucrative as a development site for the state government, as nearly all the land is publicly owned. The Bays Precinct takes in 5.5 kilometres of waterfront only a few kilometres from the CBD, and encompasses 95 hectares of land next to White Bay, Rozelle Bay, Blackwattle Bay and Johnstons Bay.
One of the letter's signatories, Metro Environmental Logistics, said it had secured rights to ship millions of tonnes of marine sand for building into Sydney but had found its negotiations to get a lease agreement at Glebe Island inexplicably blocked.
"We believe UrbanGrowth have an agenda and it's not about good economic policy, it's about maximising the value of this land," MEL Chairman Keith Carew said. "We have been trying since last October to engage with them, to no avail."
The company's finance director Arthur Psaltis told Fairfax Media: "We are led to believe that under the banner of turning the Bays Precinct into a so-called innovation district, UrbanGrowth are considering a residential urban renewal project [for Glebe Island]."
If the company could bring the sand into Sydney via the port, then "30.5 million kilometres of truck movements" a year could be saved, he said.
An UrbanGrowth spokesman told Fairfax that the Bays Precinct "has long been in need of an overhaul" and that "a decision on the transformation of Glebe Island is expected at the end of 2016".
He said the government would "continue to talk to port tenants and users".
Signatories to the letter to Mr Baird include the cruise ship companies Carnival Australia and Royal Carribean, bulk handlers Hanson and Gypsum Resources Australia, marine sand supplier Metro Environmental Logistics, Waterway Constructions which is refurbishing ferry wharves around the inner harbour, Polaris Marine, Australian Wharf and Bridge, and companies running harbour tours.
In 2014 Mr Baird described the Bays Precinct as "an urban wasteland ... four times the size of Barangaroo sitting right next to the world's greatest harbour".
