North shore residents and representatives have launched a campaign of resistance against the state government’s plans to increase housing density, accusing Premier Chris Minns of “trying to cause trouble” by rushing through changes.
At a community meeting on Wednesday night, senior Ku-ring-gai Council officers showed residents photographs of apartment blocks in Meadowbank and Burwood, and warned that was the north shore’s future under the government’s policies.
The council’s director of strategy and environment Andrew Watson, who led the presentation, pointed to an eight-storey building in Wilga Street, Burwood, beside a single-storey house. “We haven’t doctored the image, it’s a real image,” he said. “You’ll end up with six-storey buildings, seven-storey buildings, sitting next to traditional bungalows.”
The emergency meeting was called to discuss two major tranches of government planning policy. The first was the transport-oriented development program, which will enable six-storey buildings within 400 metres of 31 train stations around Greater Sydney and the regions, including Roseville, Lindfield, Killara and Gordon on the north shore.
The second was a plan to allow terraces, townhouses and two-storey apartment buildings in all “low-density” residential zones near transport hubs and town centres in Greater Sydney, and dual occupancies such as duplexes in all low-density zones across NSW.
Nearly 800 people registered to attend Wednesday’s public forum, and almost 150 crammed into Ku-ring-gai Council chambers in Gordon for the two-hour session. Roseville resident Suzanne Keaveny said the government’s plans were “outrageous” and would cause traffic chaos.
“I’ve watched Sydney grow, and I think it’s really got to the point where we’re at gridlock now,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense, and they’ve done no traffic or proper impact studies. They’ve thrown it on to us. Are we a democratic country, or are we living in a dictatorship? I’ve never seen this before in my life.”
Outside, the residents’ group Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment, led by president Kathy Cowley, handed out brochures asserting the government did not care about homes, value, heritage, trees or wildlife. “All Ku-ring-gai suburbs threatened,” it said.
The government says its transport-oriented development program will create 138,000 homes across the 31 train stations over 15 years. Watson told the audience that if distributed evenly, that would mean almost 18,000 dwellings around the four Ku-ring-gai stations alone – which was multiple times higher than the capacity identified during previous council studies.
“I don’t need to tell anybody in this room that provision of housing is reasonably controversial,” Watson said, noting Ku-ring-gai had delivered 5650 additional dwellings since 2012. “It’s not as if this council has done nothing over the last decade or so.”
Watson told residents “we have actually seen no evidence” that this type of development would do much to make housing more affordable. However, a NSW Productivity Commission paper last year found housing scarcity in Sydney drove up prices (and rents), and the best way to counter this was increasing density and building heights in areas with existing infrastructure closer to the city.
Residents were told that in the areas around the affected stations, tree canopy could be cut from 30 per cent to 7 per cent. By contrast, the council’s “urban forest strategy” aims to lift tree canopy across the entire local government area from 45 per cent to 49 per cent.
Watson said the release of the plans before Christmas, ahead of their implementation in April, suggested the government was “trying to cause trouble”. “This isn’t a planning exercise. This is an anti-planning exercise. There is nothing logical or methodological about it,” he said.
Shadow attorney-general Alister Henskens, the Liberal MP for Wahroonga, attended the meeting and told residents the opposition would fight the changes. “This is going to be a devastating impact on our community,” Henskens said. “It will completely and utterly change the character of our area.”
Planning Minister Paul Scully said Ku-ring-gai Council had received a briefing about the changes last week. “The NSW government is resetting planning rules to make sure that land zoned for greater density delivers that density,” he said.
“These reforms and our commitment to review and streamline the planning system are a key part of confronting the housing crisis in NSW – which is a shared responsibility.”
Earlier in January, Scully said the previous government had left Sydney and NSW with a severe housing crisis that Labor was determined to tackle. Increasing supply in well-located areas was integral to that goal, he said. “If there’s no supply, there are no homes for the next generation.”
Wednesday’s session was the first in a series of community actions to oppose the government’s plans. Ku-ring-gai Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday night, and the Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils will also hold a special meeting in mid-February.
Mayor Sam Ngai said property developers have been “circling, even harassing” residents in the 400 metres around the four train stations, and “other residents have shared with us their displeasure of receiving regular, unsolicited contact from developers in recent weeks”.
In a motion to be debated on Monday, councillors Martin Smith and Kim Wheatley accused the government of “cynically” releasing the plans over the holiday period.
“Ku-ring-gai is alarmed by the long-term consequences of the government’s plans and will not sit back and allow it to occur,” they say. “The new planning controls will lead to the widespread destruction of heritage properties, massive tree loss and traffic gridlock.”
Residents were encouraged to participate in a council survey, and provide feedback to the government about the low- and mid-rise housing policy before February 23.
David Knox of Pymble said he was concerned about the potential impact on heritage properties on the eastern side of Roseville and Killara stations, and the policy should only apply to the other side.
“It looks rushed,” he said after the meeting. “I’m going to have a beer at the Greengate [Hotel] before they knock it down.”
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