Monday 6 November 2017

The Greater Sydney Commission has released revised plans for Sydney to 2056. The Eastern City District covers the Sydney electorate and includes a five year target of 46,550 new homes, with 18,400 in the City of Sydney and 300 in Woollahra Council. The plan expects 157,500 new homes in this district by 2036. See Elizabeth Farrelly’s comment HERE.

I have been pushing for an affordable housing target of at least 15 per cent. The plan supports a target of 5-10 per cent of new floor space, which if delivered, would be an improvement on the government’s current meagre one to four per cent aim – at Barangaroo we will only get 2.3 per cent and even then it may not be on site. It is unclear how GSC will enforce the target or whether inner city developments will provide the lower end of the target. There is a dire absence of affordable housing with ordinary income earners unable to afford homes close to jobs and services and we need urgent action to provide people on low incomes housing options. Current student accommodation proposals say $300/week is affordable!

Councils will have to review their LEPs to comply with the final plans. The plans rely entirely on various infrastructure agencies to provide transport, parks, schools and community facilities but it is unclear how the GSC will make this happen. You can comment until 15 December HERE.