(A) Council note:
(i) on 5 December 2022 the
Department of Planning and Environment announced 10 sites across NSW where the
NSW Government will forcibly take over rezoning from local councils;
(ii) that the NSW Government
intends to remove planning powers from a range of NSW councils to rezone land
for 70,000 new dwellings under their Rezoning Pathways Program;
(iii) that under the program, the
NSW Government will assess and select State or regionally significant planning
proposals, or lead the rezoning work from start to finish, with all land to be
rezoned by 2024;
(iv) Explorer Street in Eveleigh,
including the social housing estate, within the City of Sydney, is on the list
of land where planning powers have been removed from council;
(v) in 2020, the NSW Government
announced a proposal to renew the Explorer Street social housing estate in
Eveleigh, Sydney, which forms part of the five total locations within the City
of Sydney;
(vi) the NSW Land and Housing
Corporation started community consultation with Explorer Street in November
2020;
(vii) confusingly, the NSW
Government Website lists Explorer Street as being at both the ‘preliminary
planning’ and ‘scoping’ stages;
(viii) the Housing Renewal Project
will deliver 4,250 new homes, 1,260 of which will be social housing – less than
30 per cent of the total dwellings planned for the site that is currently 100
per cent public housing;
(ix) the Rezoning Pathways
Program continues the past actions of the NSW Government, who have repeatedly
sought to take control of public housing upgrades and rezoning from councils;
and
(x) local governments are best
placed to consider plans relating to the development and rezoning of social
housing; 99 Monday 12 December 2022
(xi) that there should be a
preservation of a mix of dwelling types and that Council should advocate for
the consideration of maintaining family housing in the provision of public
housing;
(B) the Chief
Executive Officer be requested to provide Council with a proposed course of
action that enables the City to advocate for a substantial portion of social
and affordable housing on the site, within a development of an appropriate bulk
and scale via the CEO Update prior to the end of 2022; and
(C) ) the Lord Mayor be requested to write to the Minister
for Planning and the Shadow Minister for Planning to request the planning
powers be reinstated to the City of Sydney Council for the Explorer Street
social housing estate in Eveleigh, and for all other social and affordable
housing sites into the future.
The motion, as varied by consent, was carried unanimously.
X086655
Source: Printed minutes 
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