The state government will water down its key housing density policy with significant concessions to local councils that have alarmed housing advocates ahead of the release of a new five-year plan for Sydney and surrounds.
A “policy refinement paper” seen by the Herald reveals several types of land will be excluded from the imminent low- and mid-rise housing reforms, which aim to increase the supply of duplexes, terraces and small apartment buildings within 800 metres of train stations and town centres.
The “policy refinement paper” was not released by the government but was circulated to councils and uploaded to the internet by Ku-ring-gai Council.
The government says the changes will not cut the housing outcome, but it has agreed to reduce the policy’s impact in R1 “general residential” areas common in the City of Sydney and the inner west. Councils feared allowing four- to six-storey buildings would “clash” with terrace or single-storey homes in these zones. A quarter of R1 lots in NSW are under heritage protection.
The paper proposes to limit new dwellings in these areas to low-rise, such as manor houses, or to only allow mid-rise apartments where existing controls permit heights above 10 metres. This will avoid “jarring transitions” in heights, it says, and maintain “a more compatible level of density for the local context”. The original plan resulted in “larger than intended increases” in height.
More broadly, areas zoned for employment (known as E1, E2 or MU1 zones) will be excluded from the new development controls, accounting for about 5.5 per cent of land originally affected.
Those town centres will still trigger the new controls in surrounding residential areas. But they may be excluded if they lack a full-line supermarket with a “wide and deep range of groceries”, or if their regular bus service runs less than once an hour.
The compromise plans recognised concerns about taller buildings going up next to single-storey or terrace homes in R1 zones.Credit: Steven Siewert
The policy will not apply to land below the probable maximum flood level in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley and Georges River catchments, or Category 1 bushfire-prone land.
The government says the revisions will not reduce the 112,000 additional homes the policy is forecast to generate statewide in five years. “This estimate is conservative and factors in that key policy refinements will be made to remove inappropriate outcomes,” the paper states.
But housing advocates Sydney YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) say the compromises will inevitably lead to fewer homes being built, and urged Planning Minister Paul Scully to stick to the original policy.
The group’s chair Justin Simon said it was ridiculous that while Liverpool had 30-storey buildings, the Planning Department believed six-storey units were not suitable for the inner-city suburbs of Glebe or Leichhardt.
“Rents in Sydney have increased 55 per cent since 2021. Now is the time to ignore self-interested councils and put renters first, not wealthy home owners,” Simon said. “[The government] needs to stand behind their policies that will help essential workers live near their jobs and build more walkable communities. Half-measures and appeasement aren’t going to get this done.”
Scully did not answer specific questions about the policy paper, but said: “The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure is finalising the policy details with councils. Housing is the largest single cost-of-living issue people are facing. We all have a shared responsibility to provide more homes for our community.”
The policy paper, dated April 29, was not released by the government but was circulated to councils and appeared in a tranche of documents uploaded to the internet by Ku-ring-gai Council, which is opposed to all the government’s housing reforms and is pursuing legal action.
Premier Chris Minns is expected to make a major announcement as soon as Wednesday assigning new housing targets to each Sydney region and council over the next five years, part of the state’s National Housing Accord goal of building 377,000 homes by mid-2029.
The low- and mid-rise housing package is the workhorse of that agenda. Its predicted yield of 112,000 more homes in five years far outweighs the 170,000 homes in 15 years expected of the transport-oriented development (TOD) program – although these figures are contested.
It is not the government’s first compromise on housing policy. As the Herald also revealed, it granted several councils more time – up to 15 months – to work on local housing plans rather than being captured by the TOD program, slated to apply in 37 suburbs with train stations.
Last week, Inner West Council resolved to seek an exemption from the low- and mid-rise housing reforms altogether while it revises its local environmental plan to lift density on its own terms. It has pledged to finish this by the end of the year. Talks about this request are ongoing.
Ku-ring-gai Mayor Sam Ngai said the government handled the low- and mid-rise package better than the TOD reforms, but he retained concerns about allowing dual occupancies on 450 square metre lots, impact on tree canopy and infrastructure funding.
“Local councils and their communities are best placed to determine where density should go, and how,” he said.
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