The built environment of Victoria Park provides a range of elements to support healthy living, including:

• Opportunity to engage in active and mixed transport modes
• An environment that is walkable, with local destinations
• Opportunities for incidental social interaction
• Choice of recreation facilities and public open spaces
• Range of options to source fresh food
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The design of Victoria Park provides a good environment for walking, as the neighbourhood has wide, well maintained footpaths, with adequate space for pedestrians, prams and wheelchairs.

The three public open space areas within Victoria Park are predominantly orientated to passive recreation. However, all are large enough for running activities, one includes a half-size basketball court and another has an active playground for children. Benches, bubblers, public toilets and rubbish bins have been provided in parks and recreational spaces. In addition to the community facilities and public open spaces, residents have access to several different types of private active recreation facilities. Some multi-unit residential buildings include their own swimming pools and gymnasiums.

The majority of Victoria Park study participants achieved sufficient physical activity each week, based on Australian guidelines. Participants reported that walking, both for transport and for recreation, was particularly important, along with going to the gym and participating in organised sports. Car usage was low, with participants reporting high rates of utilitarian walking and use of public transport. However, only a small number of people engaged in cycling for transport due to reported safety concerns, which City of Sydney Council hopes to address through the provision of proposed bike path or lane through Victoria Park and on the adjacent roads.

Residents have access to a good range fresh food, and there is relatively low visibility and provision of non-healthy food shops in The East Village shopping centre, which includes a major supermarket, and other fresh food suppliers. Additionally, City of Sydney has provided large freestanding, self-watering community gardening containers, which are managed through the Green Square Growers network, encouraging local food growing and sharing.

Victoria Park is part of the larger Green Square development, which will include a Town Centre slated as a retail, commercial and cultural hub for the region. It is projected that by 2030, Green Square will be home to 40,000 residents and will attract 22,000 workers. The Town Centre will house around 6,800 residents and 8.600 workers (City of Sydney, 2008). Within Victoria Park itself, commercial and retail enterprises provide employment opportunities and stimulate economic activity.

A key feature of Victoria Park is the application of environmentally friendly design elements, such as a bio-retention swale system for stormwater treatment and management. The first of its kind in Sydney, the system allows for the collection and filtering of stormwater via swales located in the roadways and green spaces. The cleansed water is then used for landscape irrigation, a water fountain, and to replenish the underground aquifer. The presence of street trees and landscaping is consistent and abundant throughout the neighbourhood. While some street trees were yet to reach the level of maturity required, some existing trees have been preserved, providing shading.

Other sustainable measures include: up-front inclusion of various ‘green’ public open space areas; recycling of demolition materials and use of renewable building materials; adaptive reuse of a heritage building; passive solar access; adoption of energy efficiency strategies (e.g. cross-flow ventilation); and provision of car-share spaces to reduce private vehicle ownership and use.

Victoria Park offers social value via the provision of affordable housing units, well-designed public open spaces that encourages and fosters social interaction, and delivery of community events and programs.

As part of a strategy to address the inequality of the housing market, exacerbated by the gentrification of inner city neighbourhoods, all development in Victoria Park is subject to a levy to fund the construction of affordable housing dwellings. The Green Square Affordable Housing Scheme provides for developers to contribute via finished affordable housing, or monetary support. This is managed by City West Housing. In 2015, more than 200 affordable rental housing units had been built in Green Square, with 130 more units expected to be provided by 2020 (Devine, 2015).

The generation of a sense of community was prioritised in the design and initial development of Victoria Park, resulting in the provision of parks and public open spaces, a branch library and community meeting rooms in a restored heritage, the initiation of a local resident organisation, and the funding of a dedicated Community Development Coordinator. There are several community groups operating in Victoria Park - Friends of Victoria Park, the Green Square Community Hub and Green Square Growers. The Community Development Coordinator interacts with the community groups and is responsible for organising events, providing information on future development and facilitating ongoing programs. Additionally, the City of Sydney has established a Neighbourhood Service Centre in Victoria Park to facilitate access to Council services.

The Planning and Building Healthy Communities study found that social interaction with neighbours was relatively low among study participants, because they felt they had sufficient avenues for social interaction elsewhere. Some participants did express some frustration about not knowing who their neighbours are, due to the ‘transitory’ nature of spaces in their multi-unit buildings coupled with the short-term tenures within some buildings. It has resulted in the open space areas becoming important gathering spaces where, as suggested by participants, there is a propensity for incidental conversation.

Victoria Park provides residents with well-maintained public open spaces, close proximity to public transport, and local destinations and amenities. The variety of community oriented activities, such as weekly farmers markets, and public open space provide residents with ample opportunities for incidental and recreational physical activity as well as the opportunity to foster social interaction and build social capitol. These provisions, paired with the development’s proximity to Sydney CBD, and the abundance of employment opportunities available locally make the residential estate a valuable asset within the broader Green Square redevelopment.