This was published 3 months ago
Let us DIY: This Sydney council wants to design its own housing plan on its own timeline
Inner West Council is urging the Minns government to delay the introduction of its low-to-mid-rise housing reforms so that it can develop plans for increased density without state-imposed rezonings.
The government has delayed introducing its signature transport-oriented housing reforms at some of the 37 locations earmarked for the changes to allow some local councils time to develop more detailed plans for the precincts.
The suburb of Balmain is under control of Sydney’s Inner West Council.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
That decision, first revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald and confirmed by Planning Minister Paul Scully last month, included the Inner West. The council was given until the end of 2024 before the introduction of new 400-metre housing density hubs in Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Ashfield.
The council is now urging Scully to delay the introduction of its other major housing reform policy – low-to-mid-rise reforms projected to contribute 112,000 homes in NSW by 2039.
The changes, which the government has previously said it would introduce by the middle of the year, will seek to increase apartment blocks and multi-dwelling housing in well-located areas.
It applies to all heavy rail, metro and light rail stations in the “six cities” region of Greater Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, as well as within 800 metres of any land zoned as an E2 commercial centre.
Next week, the Labor-controlled council will move a motion asking Scully to delay those changes to allow the council to develop a new local environment plan, which Mayor Darcy Byrne said would be completed by the end of the year.
Councils have given the government’s housing reforms a mixed review, with Ku-ring-gai council in particular threatening legal action to stop the changes. But Byrne pointed out that the Inner West had secured a delay to the introduction of the transport-oriented development scheme by working with the government, and suggested that it could continue.
Byrne said a council-derived plan would allow it to deliver greater density while “protecting the character and amenity of our neighbourhoods”.
“We recognise that the housing supply crisis is real and believe that desperately needed new homes can be best be delivered through local, place-based planning controls,” Byrne said.
Mayor Darcy Byrne wants Inner West Council to draw up its own plan for greater density.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Scully did not say whether the government would consider the request, instead saying that feedback on the low-to-mid-rise proposals had been reviewed by the department, which was meeting with the councils to “discuss the details”.
“Inner West Council is welcome to move any motion in their council meetings,” he said.
The motion says the new council planning document would allow for up-zoning in Ashfield, Dulwich Hill, Marrickville, and Croydon train stations and increased density on main streets through shop-top housing.
It would also provide “density incentives” for the amalgamation of land in areas identified for up-zoning and complete rezonings in Leichhardt, Taverners Hill and the Kings Bay precinct.
But the council motion would also seek to protect Haberfield from any rezoning proposals by listing it on the State Heritage Register.
At the same time, Byrne wants the government to deliver 1000 new public housing dwellings in the LGA after the council previously provided a shortlist of 10 car parks, which it says could be turned into housing.
“We are also insistent as the Inner West is at the centre of the housing affordability crisis we need a big investment in new public housing dwellings,” he said.
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