Labor calls for infrastructure to match growth in the southwest
Housing targets would be distributed “more fairly” across Sydney under a state Labor government amid growing concerns about overdevelopment in areas such as Liverpool.
Liverpool
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Housing targets would be distributed “more fairly” across Sydney under a state Labor government, Opposition Planning and Infrastructure spokesman Michael Daley said.
Mr Daley’s comments come amid growing concerns about overdevelopment in suburbs such as Moorebank and surrounding areas, where medium and high density zonings have seen apartment blocks constructed in streets traditionally occupied by single-storey properties.
“We’ll make sure that the balance is tipped back in favour of communities because at the moment it’s well and truly in the favour of developers,” Mr Daley said.
Labor will announce its policies later this year but has emphasised a more even distribution of housing targets to ensure western Sydney suburbs don’t exclusively bear the brunt of the city’s rapid growth.
“You can’t just shove hundreds of thousands of people into the western suburbs of Sydney … and not meet the reasonable expectation that community members have of providing them with … the local infrastructure that they need,” Mr Daley said.
Meanwhile, Holsworthy state Liberal MP Melanie Gibbons has launched a petition calling on Liverpool Council to urgently review its Local Environmental Plan 2008.
The LEP is a framework containing zoning and development controls to guide planning decisions for local council areas.
Liverpool Council was granted funding to review its LEP this year under the Western Sydney City Deal signed by eight local councils and the federal and state governments.
Ms Gibbons previously said she was concerned about the degree of development in suburbs such as Holsworthy and Moorebank, and wants these areas to retain their community feeling.
But Labor candidate for Holsworthy Charishma Kaliyanda labelled the campaign a “cynical” move ahead of the March 2019 election.
“Over the last seven years, it’s her government that has systematically taken powers away from council regarding development, regarding how we plan our communities and the funding that we have to service them,” Ms Kaliyanda said.
She said residents had been calling for much-needed infrastructure for years, only to be ignored.
“I’ve had a number of residents … contact me to talk about their concerns with new developments that are in the works — not just things like townhouses, but also developments that have been pushed through under the affordable housing SEPP — things like boarding houses,” she said.
Some of these proposed developments don’t fit the character of the area, she said, and streets such as Nuwarra Rd in Moorebank served as “a visual example of the change that’s starting to take place”.
Liverpool Council has been granted a deferral from the state government’s medium density housing code, which permits one and two storey dual occupancies, manor houses and terraces to be carried out under a complying development approval, after a motion by Labor councillor Nathan Hagarty gained support at the council’s June meeting.
Ms Kaliyanda said the council was awaiting further details on the deferral.
“More significantly, we know that Liverpool Council has one of the biggest DA pipelines in the state at the moment and as soon as you create confusion in that system of developments being approved under the medium density housing code, through a different body, you leave council less able to forecast what’s needed to service our growing communities,” she said.