Labor to bulldoze through housing reforms
Unleashing housing supply with a one-size-fits-all planning approach is already proving to be a tough pathway for the Labor Government.
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Unleashing housing supply with a one-size-fits-all planning approach is already proving to be a tough pathway for the Minns Government.
Competing colourfully emotive claims are being made arising from the draft policy that seeks government-enforced zoning changes across swathes of Sydney.
Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone claimed the increased density being pushed would “kill off backyard cricket” while the NSW Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat forecast that without change Sydney “could become known as the city with no grandchildren.”
Paul Scully, the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, reputed that Bondi Beach could be “plunged into darkness” as “absurd.”
The state government is finding that managing concerns around neighbourhood character is going to be challenging, particularly in the lead up to the local council elections in September.
The housing shortage means Sydney needs hundreds of thousands of new homes.
The state government’s draft housing policy was only publicly released last December, upsetting the community psyche ahead of Friday’s closing for submissions.
The draft policy identified eight transport hubs for accelerated rezoning within 1200m of the Metro and rail stations at Bankstown, Bays West, Bella Vista, Crows Nest, Homebush, Hornsby, Kellyville and Macquarie Park.
It seeks the rezoning within 400m of Metro or suburban rail stations and town centres to make residential flat building permissible in all residential zonings at Adamstown, Ashfield, Banksia, Berala, Booragul, Canterbury, Corrimal, Croydon, Dapto, Dulwich Hill, Gordon, Gosford, Hamilton, Killara, Kogarah, Kotara, Lidcombe, Lindfield, Marrickville, Morisset, Newcastle Interchange, North Strathfield Metro, North Wollongong, Rockdale, Roseville, St Marys Metro, Teralba, Tuggerah, Turrella, Wiley Park and Wyong.
The policy also seeks to allow rezoning to allow manor houses, terraces, duplexes and semi-detached houses that can add density to local town centres and transport hubs using a pattern book approach for an “faster delivery.”
There are already reforms introducing 30 per cent higher density for proposals with affordable housing. The new discussion paper by the Productivity Commission, titled “What we gain by building more homes in the right places”, argues for building up in inner-Sydney suburbs as a key solution.
“45,000 extra dwellings could have been built between 2017 and 2022, with no extra land, by allowing higher buildings,” it points out.
Achterstraat seeks a fresh discussion on heritage restrictions close to the CBD and “the role they play in keeping housing prices high.”
He says more than half of residential land in prime suburbs such as North Sydney, Newtown, Edgecliff, and Redfern have heritage restrictions.
“We can preserve the gems of Sydney’s heritage without inadvertently freezing young people out,” he suggests.
Comforting words but with the bulldozers likely coming next door.
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