NSW Premier Chris Minns has been challenged to dramatically increase the “affordable housing” portion of a major redevelopment on state-owned land in the northern Sydney electorate of a key crossbench MP.
Michael Regan, the independent member for Wakehurst, said the government should redraw plans for the new Frenchs Forest town centre to be built next to Northern Beaches Hospital once The Forest High School is relocated to a nearby site.
The town centre at Frenchs Forest will be located on the former site of The Forest High School once it is relocated.
The strategy, created under the previous Coalition government, calls for 2000 new dwellings in the precinct, including 1000 in the town centre.
Fifteen per cent of the units in the town centre, and 10 per cent of those outside it, are to be earmarked as affordable rental housing – which is offered at subsidised rates and managed by community housing providers.
Regan wants that figure increased to at least 50 per cent and says the government should strike a deal with unions to reserve the units for teachers, bus drivers and nurses for the adjacent hospital.
“Now the federal government has stepped in, and they’ve given a financial incentive, the [state] government has got no excuse,” Regan said, referring to the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund for social and affordable housing.
Wakehurst MP Michael Regan.Credit: James Brickwood
“We’re seeing teachers not taking up positions [on the northern beaches] because of housing costs. We’re seeing bus drivers move back to the western suburbs because it’s cheaper to live there. We’re actually seeing the impacts of this now.”
Regan is not proposing additional building height on the site. The maximum has been set at 40 metres, or about 12 storeys, the same height as the hospital – with lower height limits applying outside the town centre.
The Wakehurst MP said the government should consider adding public housing, which is state owned, to the mix. “There’s a shortage as I understand it, so why not?”
But Planning Minister Paul Scully indicated he would maintain the former government’s Frenchs Forest plan, noting Northern Beaches Council supported it in December 2021 while Regan was mayor.
“We have a target of 30 per cent social and affordable housing on surplus government land that’s used for housing,” he said. “Of course, the target should not be seen as a limit and if proponents wish to deliver more affordable housing as part of their development, that would be welcome.”
Scully said Labor had introduced “the most progressive housing policies in the last 12 years” in its first 10 months, such as the eight state-led rezonings around major train and Metro stations to deliver “homes for everyone in our community, including health workers, teachers and hospitality workers, who at this point are effectively locked out of Sydney”.
Regan has opposed another major housing development in his electorate, a 450-dwelling proposal from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council called Patyegarang (formerly Lizard Rock) in Belrose. He argues it would destroy 46 football fields-worth of bushland and pose a fire risk.
That proposal is currently before the Sydney North Strategic Planning Panel, which will make a recommendation to Scully later this year.
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