8 March 2012
- Proposed rules jeopardise 134,300 new dwellings valued at $33.5 billion
- Proposal will threaten development on more than 1,000 square km of prime land
- Proposal will affect planning in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra
- Urban Taskforce says noise contour proposal rejected by industry experts
- Councils and state governments urged to lobby Canberra and retain current system
CBRE Report 1 Report 2 Report 3
MacroPlanDimasi Report Appendix Maps
Urban Taskforce Australia today said the Draft National Airports Safeguarding Framework currently open to public scrutiny is a recipe for planning chaos and could affect hundreds of thousands of landowners.
“The Federal Government’s incursion into land planning around every airport in Australia is not based on evidence or detailed research, it is selectively applied to suit the operators of airports and with multiple controls can only lead to planning chaos,” said Urban Taskforce Australia Chief Executive Chris Johnson.
“We commissioned four leaders in their field with expertise in airports, acoustics, planning, legal issues and economic impact and all four have given the proposed system a fail,” Mr Johnson said.
Leading legal firm Gadens has reviewed the legal issues, Wilkinson Murray examined the acoustic implications, CBRE assessed the planning and land use issues, and MacroPlanDimasi investigated the economic impacts of the new approach.
In particular, the report by MacroPlanDimasi reveals that 134,300 new dwellings with a total value of $33.5 billion could be threatened if the proposed system takes effect, Mr Johnson said. (See tables below.)
“All of these experts believe that no case has been made for a change to how noise impact is controlled around airports from the current ANEF system which has been operating in Australia for 35 years and in America for 50 years. The addition of N60, N65 and N70 noise contours can only confuse everybody and lead to contestible planning decisions that will end up in the courts, he said.
“There seems to be no regulatory impact statement as required by COAG, no assessment of the billions of dollars of property investment that could be effected, no explanation of the logic behind the proposed controls and a questionable bias against greenfield housing over brownfield developments.
“Urban Taskforce Australia urges all councils that have airports in their boundaries to read the detailed expert reports we have commissioned before making submissions to the Federal Government. Along with the state governments, the councils must move fast as the public review ends on March 15 and there is very little time for affected parties to absorb the complex issues and send their comments to Canberra, Mr Johnson said.
“Even the Federal Governments supposed reason for changing how airport noise is measured is deeply flawed. The report states that it is because of increasing complaints outside the ANEF system that something new is needed. Urban Taskforce Australia researched the incidence of complaints outside the normal area at Sydney airport and found that 90% of complaints were made by three serial complainers with the largest number of complaints coming from distant Kellyville where a single person logged 1,663 complaints.
To restructure planning rules across hundreds of square kilometres based on a few serial complainers that are not even near airports seems most bizarre, Mr Johnson said.
“On behalf of the dozens of councils and many hundreds of thousands of landowners around airports the Urban Taskforce believes the Draft National Airports Safeguarding Framework should be scrapped immediately and that all governments should retain the current ANEF system. We can’t let the prosperity of the nation be sacrificed to narrow sectional interests, Mr Johnson said.
Links to the indiviaual reports can be found at the start of this release.
NOTES:
- In Sydney the impact could be to jeopardise as many as 34,100 dwellings, valued at $8.5 billion across an area of 63 square kilometres.
- In Melbourne the impact could be to jeopardise as many as 10,400 dwellings, valued at $4.5 billion across an area of 74 square kilometres.
- In Brisbane the impact could be to jeopardise as many as 15,000 dwellings, worth $3.7 billion across an area of 163 square kilometres.
- In Perth the impact could be to jeopardise as many as 35,200 dwellings, worth $8.8 billion across an area of 251 square kilometres.
- In Canberra the impact could be to jeopardise as many as 39,600 dwellings, worth $7.9 billion across an area of 566 square kilometres.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
