Sydney YIMBYs to host activist workshop sessions to recruit ‘small army’ to drown out NIMBY voices

There’s a new ‘Yes’ movement brewing as a newly formed YIMBY advocacy group prepares to launch a ‘small army’ of Sydneysiders to counter the voices of NIMBYS.

There’s a new ‘Yes’ movement brewing as a newly formed pro-development advocacy group prepares to mobilise a small army of Sydneysiders to counter the voices of the city’s sea of so-called NIMBYS.

Sydney YIMBY – which advocates for more housing in Sydney by saying ‘yes’ to development ‘in my backyard’ – is preparing to launch ‘activist training workshops’ across greater Sydney with a goal of showing residents how to lobby local councils for more developments in their neighbourhoods.

The advocacy group will use the workshops to show attendees how to lodge submissions to councils in favour of development.

Residents will also be given advice by urban planners on the ins-and-outs of the state’s often convoluted planning system.

Melissa Neighbour, co-founder of Sydney YIMBY, said the workshops were aimed at recruiting a ‘small army’ of Sydneysiders to counter the loud voices of ‘NIMBYS’ who were typically opposed to urban development.

A photo of the Sydney YIMBY launch party earlier this year.

“Typically NIMBYS tend to be of the older generation who have the time and money, are highly organised and know how the system works,” she said.

“When a development application pops up they write submissions in a day and get down to council meetings to put their objections forward.

the Sydney YIMBY co-founder Melissa Neighbour. Picture: Tim Pascoe

“They’re a well-oiled machine and we wanted to counter that by having recruits who can put forward the other side of the argument. A co-ordinated yes has not happened before.”

The training sessions will be open to all groups – including a large number of younger Sydneysiders who have already expressed interest in the YIMBY movement.

Ms Neighbour said the training sessions could help address a lack of supply in Sydney’s housing market that was increasingly leaving the dream of home ownership out of reach.

“As an urban planner, I’ve seen the weight the objections are given and it can swing the whole process in how development is assessed,” she said.

“The rhetoric around development is changing, before it was NIMBYS that had the loudest voice but there’s a new story being written and that’s predominantly by the younger generation.

“The feedback we’ve had is they want to know how the planning system works and how to write submissions to say ‘Yes’ to developments. There has been some bad development in Sydney but our firm view is that density can be done well.”

Ms Neighbour speaking at Sydney YIMBY event.

Sydney YIMBY members are calling for increased density in Sydney suburbs.

Sydney YIMBY members are also preparing to mobilise against strategies by local councils the advocacy group fear could come at the cost of urban redevelopment – including an Inner West Council plan to establish new ‘Heritage Conservation Areas’ impacting 1300 homes.

Members will speak at next month’s council meeting to object to the heritage review, arguing it could thwart urban density across swathes of the local government area.

But Paul Mortimer – a member of Save Marrickville which supports the council’s heritage plans – said he was ‘bewildered’ by arguments put forward by the YIMBY movement.

“Instead of it being open slather and allowing developers to knock down everything, we have to be smarter to protect the heritage we have and focus development in more appropriate areas,” he said.

The YIMBY training sessions will be primarily held within a 15km radius of the CBD with the first scheduled in Chatswood on October 15.