The Herald has obtained
housing targets imposed on 26 of the 43 councils included in Sydney’s Metropolitan Strategy, which is
designed to provide 640,000 new homes for an extra 1.1 million people within 25
years.
Densely populated Strathfield
Municipal Council is expected to accommodate 9000 new dwellings – double what
it considers possible. Willoughby
has been asked to take a further 8000 homes, also twice the limit it has set
itself. And a spokeswoman for Bankstown
said it had been set a total of 26,000 extra residences, which “would have
to be built entirely in place of existing homes”.
One year after the Premier,
Morris Iemma, unveiled the blueprint for Sydney’s
population growth, several councils say they have no idea how the Government
came up with their preliminary housing targets.
They say they will be forced to
erect scores of high-rise apartment blocks that will drastically alter the face
of their neighbourhoods, and have expressed bewilderment at the lack of
transport planning.
But supporters of the strategy
insist that well-designed residential towers are needed around transport hubs
close to the city centre to stop the relentless spread at Sydney’s fringe.
The Mayor of Strathfield, Bill
Carney, said: “The Planning Minister [Frank Sartor] has told us it’s all
negotiable. But how can it be when there’s absolutely no consultation with us?
Call me a cynic, but I suspect we won’t hear anything more about this until
after the March election.”
Even the heavily developed
suburbs around Marrickville and Woollahra, on the central business district’s
doorstep, must find room for 5200 and 2800 extra homes respectively by 2031.
Woollahra council had an increase of just two new dwellings this year.
Although some councils have
declined to reveal their targets, all will be affected.
Many fear the new homes will be
built over conservation areas and employment space. But some, such as Canada Bay
and Burwood – which will include the two inner-west hubs under the plan –
believe intense urban development is the only way to avoid urban sprawl.
Canada Bay
has been asked to take 11,000 homes, most of which would be built at Rhodes and Breakfast Point. Cr Neil Kenzler said:
“You either go up or out. The only other option is down and I haven’t met
anyone yet who wants to live in a hole. The higher you go, the smaller the
footprint and the more open space you’re left with.”
The
Department of Planning set Sydney’s
43 councils the loose targets – calculated with its online METRIX program – at
recent closed-door meetings. In turn, councils must come up with their own
housing strategies. Final targets will be set in the new year.
A spokeswoman for Mr Sartor said
the process had been delayed because many councils had asked for more time.
The department and Mr Sartor’s
office have repeatedly refused to divulge their figures to the Herald on
the ground they are “indicative only, have no official status and are
simply a starting point”. But councils angered by the process have ignored
a directive to keep them confidential.
Hunters Hill says its target of
2500 new homes “just doesn’t stack up”, and Kogarah is hoping for a
reduction in its total of 3600.
Cr Rochelle Porteous, who
represented Leichhardt at a department briefing, said she was
“astounded by the lack of local knowledge … I had to point out that
Annandale shopping centre was part of our council and they were like, ‘Oh
really?”‘
A spokeswoman for Bankstown said that to
fit in 26,000 extra homes the council would have to start cramming eight-storey
residential towers into suburban centres, “which will ruin the character
of the area”.
For Willoughby, the METRIX program had calculated
that Castlecrag alone should squeeze in an extra 1000 dwellings. “That is
inappropriate; it’s just not going to happen,” said the council’s
environmental services director, Greg Woodhams.
Most councils have complained
that the Government has not provided them with transport plans or any means of
generating jobs for the hugely expanded populations.
The executive director of the
Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Dominic Johnson, said that
without council input, “the Government won’t have an adequate grasp of the
jobs, transport and housing mix needed at local level”.
However, Professor Peter Newman,
who last year was dumped as the NSW Sustainability Commissioner after first
overseeing the Sydney
blueprint, said councils had been part of several early discussions about the
targets.
“There are many clever ways
of designing suburbs so that focused density does not destroy urban
character,” he said. “As fuel prices rise … the drive to live closer
to work and other services will rise inexorably. Densities will increase either
by the market finding ways to do it by going around councils, or by planners
trying to ensure it is well planned, in the right places and well
designed.”
HOUSING TARGETS
City of Sydney – 55,000
Bankstown – 26,000
Auburn – 19,000
Hornsby – 11,000
Canada Bay – 11,000
Ryde – 11,000
Sutherland – 10,120
Ku-ring-gai – 10,000
Warringah – 10,000
Strathfield – 9000
Parramatta – 9000 (in city centre)
Willoughby – 8000
Randwick – 7693