Housing project near Camden blocked by uncertainty over Outer Sydney Orbital route

A project that would add up to 800 affordable homes to Sydney’s south west has been scrapped, with one of the government’s own projectes cited as the reason why.

A project to build up to 800 affordable family homes in the south west has been killed off by bureaucratic delays and red tape despite years of negotiation between the developers and the state government.

An independent planning panel has ruled that it is too early to rezone the property from farmland to residential use because it is outside a predetermined growth area, and the final location of a major motorway and freight rail line hasn’t been set in stone.

The panel knocked back the Tidapa project even though a decision acknowledged that it “might have a role” in the future.

The decision to effectively axe the project was based on the fact that the Tidapa development is outside the “South West Growth Area” (SWGA), and that the Outer Sydney Orbital route is still to be determined.

The Outer Sydney Orbital route is still to be finalised four years after it was first proposed.

The refusal to let the project progress was criticised by Labor’s housing spokeswoman Rose Jackson, who said there is a “desperate need” to cut red tape.

An artist's impression of Tidapa – a proposal to turn a 147-hectare western Sydney farm into 800 new homes at Cobbitty in Sydney's west.

“This government have been very fast to announce and very slow to actually unlock additional housing sites and put downward pressure on housing prices,” she said.

“There is a desperate need cut red tape and to build the road, rail, water, power and sewer connections to unlock housing supply and address housing unaffordability,” she said.

The planning panel decision came after the project was rejected by Camden council last year, in part because it threatened to impact “threatened ecological communities, including Cumberland Plain Woodland”.

The council also rejected the proposal because it was outside the predetermined South West Growth Area, and would “have an unacceptable visual impact on Denbigh and the significant Cobbitty cultural landscape”.

Labor’s housing spokesperson Rose Jackson wants the government to act fast to get the 800 new homes built. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Local MP Peter Sidgreaves said while he cannot currently support the project, he would welcome the South West Growth Area being extended west to the Outer Sydney Orbital, when its final location is confirmed.

“It is my belief that what the O’Gradys propose is a very good transition from metropolitan Sydney to rural lands,” he said.

The project would have created a mix of affordable and premium homes on large blocks, and feature a sporting centre and recreational spaces.

It would also to create more than 2,000 local jobs for eight years.

Edward O’Grady, whose family owns the land on which the development would be built, blamed decades of red tape for failing to deliver new houses for the Western suburbs.

“Someone who was born when we started this process is now potentially looking for a home out here, and there’s no houses,” he said.

“These panels are making long term decisions about Sydney’s housing crisis, (but) what’s the point of having a process if it’s not meeting the Minister’s policy targets?” he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Planning and Environment said that planning panels are independent so their decisions are out of the government’s hands.

Planning Minister Anthony Roberts however has been working to slash red tape and ensure bureaucrats are focused on delivering more housing supply and boosting affordability.