19 March 2013
The Urban Taskforce welcomes the release of the draft Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney.
“Sydney needs a range of housing types from new houses on the cities fringe and apartments in existing suburban areas. The Metro Strategy is strong on new housing on the city fringes and in existing urban areas, but we need more detail on the type of housing densities planned, particularly for existing urban areas.”
The Government says that Sydney needs 545,000 new homes within the next 20 years, and we need a good balance between inner urban areas where transport and services are at the highest standards and new fringe areas where services will be improved.
“The obvious location for higher density housing is around transport nodes and town centres and this is what the Metro Strategy seems to be suggesting.
State leadership is essential to accommodate Sydney’s high growth targets and the city shaper and Urban Activation precincts must be championed by the Government, says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson.
The Parramatta Road corridor must be the location for significant urban density and renewal. This means housing of varying densities must be catered for.
Along with housing, Sydney needs jobs, particularly in Western Sydney and the Metro Strategy says that 300,000 new jobs will be created for Western Sydney making it an economic driver for New South Wales. This is excellent news for Western Sydney and NSW.
However, the strategy must not be used to favour development in selected locations by prohibiting appropriate development in other locations. This was a problem with the previous metro strategies which were inflexible and restricted beneficial employment generating land uses to only a select few locations, regardless of market demand, says Chis.
“To get development happening where it is needed there must be a way to get land rezoned and developed quickly. The Government says that fast tracking rezoning and reducing red tape will be further examined in the planning process. The Urban Taskforce says that an implementation plan is essential
Unless there are ways to remove regulatory blockages to appropriate development, nothing will happen for many years no matter what the strategy document says.
