The City of Sydney has released a new discussion paper to lead conversation on where and how more local housing should be delivered.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore AO has opened consultation on the Housing for All discussion paper, encouraging the community to explore new opportunities to address the housing affordability crisis.
“Affordable housing is essential for a diverse, cohesive and economically successful global city, and more importantly, is a basic human right,” the Lord Mayor said.
“All levels of government, industry and the community must rise to meet the housing affordability challenge and deliver the homes our city needs.
“The NSW Government’s draft Sydney Plan sets out a clear expectation that councils should be reviewing their planning controls to ensure there is additional capacity to increase private housing development.
“Our discussion paper will help lead a conversation about what type of housing is needed, where it can be delivered and what infrastructure is necessary to ensure successful communities.
“Our planners believe that through zoning changes, increased building densities or heights, and incentives for more homes in strategic locations, we could create space for thousands of new homes, on top of existing zoned capacity.”
Since June 2004, over 66,000 new homes have been approved in the City of Sydney, making it one of the fastest growing local government areas in Australia. The City of Sydney met 77% of its previous NSW Government-allocated housing target within just 9 years of the 20-year goal and has almost 18,000 more homes currently in the development pipeline.
“For the past 20 years, the City of Sydney has been at the forefront of approving high quality housing density alongside the infrastructure needed for liveable communities,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Maintaining local planning control is essential to ensure growth aligns with community needs, delivers genuine affordability, and avoids ad-hoc, developer-led outcomes.
“Broadbrush approaches to rezoning and setting arbitrary targets aren’t as effective in the long-term as collaborative solutions. Planning that works with, not separate from, local government.
“We are committed to working with residents, the development sector, business, community housing providers and all tiers of government to make strong planning decisions that meet the housing challenge while delivering positive outcomes for everyone who live here.”
The discussion paper seeks responses to 3 important questions about housing:
Where and how can we plan for more homes?
We’re asking for ideas on places that could be suitable for more well-located homes.
What should the NSW Government do to support more homes?
We’re asking for feedback on the NSW Government developing its own land and continuing to deliver better transport and infrastructure such as schools to support growing communities.
How can housing better meet the diverse needs of our community?
We’re asking for ideas about the different types of housing we need for our diverse communities, so that housing is available for people from a mix of cultural backgrounds, income levels, household types, lifestyles and stages of life.
The discussion paper identifies 10 locations across the City of Sydney where more housing could be created, including:
Ultimo and Pyrmont – recent planning with the local community revealed more opportunities for homes in this area
North Green Square precinct – linking 2 lively neighbourhoods, Green Square and Waterloo, with easy access to transport, community facilities and public spaces
Prince Alfred Park east – a place to live, work and socialise with unprecedented access to transport connections next to one of Sydney’s best parks
Supa Centre site renewal – on the doorstep of the future public Moore Park where redevelopment would show how shopping centres and homes could work together
Broadway renewal – allowing more homes above thriving businesses and excellent access to services, transport, open space and entertainment
Parramatta Road at Forest Lodge – the renewal of underused former industrial sites could provide much needed housing for students and hospital workers, with a focus on affordable housing
Beaconsfield – the suburb is already well connected, and adding more homes helps more people live near parks, transport, shops and community facilities.
High streets – more homes along high streets give better access to shops and services, and support local business
Park-side living – more homes next to parks give the benefits of green spaces to more people
Laneways – compact homes along laneways could make them greener and more attractive.
The Lord Mayor said many more new homes could also be located on vacant or underutilised state-owned sites.
“It is critical that alongside this process, the NSW Government provides the infrastructure needed to support growth, and that it looks at its own sites suitable for housing in our area, including on vacant and underutilised Transport for NSW land,” the Lord Mayor said.
“The NSW Government should prioritise the development of its significant landholdings where many more new homes could be provided, such as the North Eveleigh precinct, Central station precinct and Explorer Street.”
The Lord Mayor said that additional zoned capacity would help greatly, but other levers would also be required to increase affordable housing stock.
“While we have some of the fastest application processing times in NSW, we continue to streamline our planning and assessment to ensure proposals for new housing are quickly approved and ready to be built when the market enables it,” the Lord Mayor said.
“We have over 10,000 private and non-private dwellings approved but not yet built and our existing planning controls have capacity for over 50,000 new homes, if they were all to be taken up.
“This hints at the larger problem hampering housing delivery, which is that even with planning approvals, the construction industry continues to face rising costs, a shortage of labour and materials, financial constraints and higher interest rates.
“Our discussion paper flags the need for more rental housing, in particular affordable rental housing, more social housing, housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and residents in need of support.
“We can’t just rezone land for private development and hope some of it will be affordable or expect the private sector to address these diverse needs. We need targeted government investment in affordable and diverse housing.
“When developers contribute to affordable housing in exchange for additional height and floor space, the City of Sydney’s definition, where rent is capped at 30% gross household income in perpetuity, should be applied, not the state government’s current definition of 20% below market rates, which are still wildly unaffordable, and expire in 15 years.”
The Housing for All discussion paper is open for public comment until 22 May.
via Vritimes