19 March 2012
The announcement by the Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce, about the potential for urban renewal of government land in Macquarie Park is good news says the Urban Taskforce.
The NSW government must pursue all opportunities for the development of land near railway stations, says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson This is particularly so if the government owns the land and it is not being used to its capacity.
The Urban Taskforce has recently called for up to 500,000 new apartments to be built on infill sites in Metropolitan Sydney over the next 25 years to meet expected population growth. Says Mr Johnson. Every site of a reasonable size if located near public transport nodes must be developed to its capacity if we are going to manage population growth.
The Urban Taskforce supports the proposal to maintain the current extent of social housing in redevelopment options for Macquarie Park and believes this can be accommodated with higher densities across the various sites.
While supporting the governments initiative the Urban Taskforce is concerned that there is a level playing field for developments by the private sector on infill sites as well as those owned by the government.
We have many members who have been battling local councils for years to get reasonable developments approved for urban infill sites, said Chris Johnson. The government should set up a Redevelopment Taskforce or a Renewal Authority to help private sector sites achieve planning approval as well as helping with their own sites.
