Planning for our future
The Greater Sydney Commission’s (GSC) draft Greater Sydney Region Plan (Region Plan) and the draft Future Transport Strategy 2056 show strides are being made towards integrating Sydney’s infrastructure with land development and planning.
The ten directions and 40 objectives in the Region Plan cover the broad range of growth and development issues Sydney is facing and reflect feedback and advice that has been provided since draft District plans were released last year.
“The draft Region Plan highlights the importance of new housing, jobs and economic development to our state’s future and underlines the fact that economic development and social development need to go hand in hand,” Property Council NSW Executive Director Jane Fitzgerald said last week.
“Diverse housing supply is critical, yet it is also important that this new housing is matched with more infrastructure and good social services including schools and hospitals; new medium density housing is important in this regard as is build-to-rent, both of which are supported by the GSC.”
The Region Plan claims that an affordable housing target of 5 to 10 per cent of new residential floor space is viable in most areas if it is tailored to local conditions and takes into account the myriad of other property taxes and levies.
“The Region Plan importantly acknowledges of the impact of levies and taxes on development feasibility and the critical role the State Government has in ensuring the cumulative impact does not stifle development and thereby worsen housing affordability,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
Following Property Council submissions, it is pleasing to see a more nuanced approach to employment land in the greater Sydney area.
“The instruction to better plan and manage this land that is critical to our economic future is an important inclusion in the Region Plan. Sydney will be the centre of advanced manufacturing and a bigger logistics industry which will make this type of land critical to local jobs,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“It is also good to see more of a focus on freight and logistics planning given the changing and growing nature of investment in our state and the pressure placed on our port and airport and trade gateways – new transport corridors must be protected including buffer zones.
“The proposed Western Sydney City Deal and the structure plan for the Western Sydney Priority Growth Area will both be critical complementary documents and approaches to ensure the economic goals of our city are met.
“The Future Transport Strategy 2056 encapsulates the importance of transport to activating new communities and supporting the achievement of a 30-minute city including integrating Wollongong and Gosford into the greater network.
“North-South transport links will be important to opening up Western Sydney and a big part of this will be the Outer Sydney Orbital and freight line to connect Western Sydney with the south west and potentially Port Kembla in the future.
“Protecting corridors to provide the community and industry with certainty on future development is critical as is ensuring that the investment in new stations and transport routes can be best leveraged through the development of homes, jobs and communities near these sites.
“Good plans and strategies will only gather dust without good governance structures and cooperation from local government and it is these elements that will be critical to ensuring the vision can become a reality.”
Submissions are due on the Future Transport Strategy by December 3, 2017, further detail can be found here.
Submissions are due on the Region Plan by December 15, 2017, further detail can be found here.