Planning Minister Paul Scully to increase housing by taking planning control from councils

A bold new plan set to be announced would see the state government strip some planning controls from councils, paving the way for more dual-occupancy dwellings in NSW. Tell us what you think. Take our poll.

Planning controls will be ripped away from local councils in a bid to increase housing density across major NSW cities and deliver as many as 112,000 new homes.

Major reforms, to be announced by Planning Minister Paul Scully on Tuesday, will allow dual occupancies (like duplexes) in all low density residential zones across the entire state.

Planning rules will also be overhauled to allow terraces, townhouses and two-storey apartment blocks in low density zones near transport hubs and town centres in Greater Sydney, the Hunter, Central Coast and Illawarra.

Mid-rise apartment blocks, up to six-storeys tall, will be permitted near transport hubs and town centres in medium density residential zones.

Paul Scully, Minister for Planning and Public plans to remove planning powers of councils. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

Mr Scully will enshrine the rules in a State Environmental Planning Policy (or SEPP), which overrides local planning instruments.

Currently, each council has its own rules for what types of homes can be built in their area. That will be overhauled to increase Sydney’s density.

The Daily Telegraph foreshadowed the changes in October, revealing that only six per cent of local planning rules allowed for terraces and two-storey apartment blocks in low density residential zones.

Residential unit blocks are banned in sixty per cent of medium density zones.

The changes threaten to significantly ramp up the Minns government’s war with NIMBY councils, some of which have already declared that they do not want to be shut-out of the planning process.

Premier Chris Minns has previously highlighted the need for more terrace housing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the reforms will help Sydney built more of the types of houses which have come to define the inner suburbs.

“Sydney has grown using these housing types. Look at homes in Wollstonecraft, Waverton, Erskineville, parts of Wollongong or Newcastle. They’re great places to live. We just need more of them,” he said.

“Sydney is one of the least dense cities in the world but fewer than half of councils allow for low and mid-rise residential buildings in areas zoned for such homes.

“We’re confronting a housing crisis so we need to change the way we’re plan for more housing, we can’t keep building out we need to create capacity for more infill, with more diverse types of homes,” he said.

Premier Chris Minns used his Bradfield Oration to announce that terrace homes and mid-rise apartments built to standard “pattern-book” designs would be fast-tracked through the planning process in a bid to get more homes built sooner.

Under ambitious targets agreed to by state and federal governments, NSW needs to build 377,000 new homes by 2029 – a target that the state is currently nowhere near meeting.

Originally published as Planning Minister Paul Scully to increase housing by taking planning control from councils