12 December 2011
The Chief Executive of the Urban Taskforce, Chris Johnson, said today that inner Sydney home values and future housing development could be jeopardised by a new measurement system for aircraft noise now being considered by the Federal Government.
- Could stop development of 93 sq kilometres of inner Sydney, including Green Square
- Urban Taskforce uses FOI to gather details about new noise measurement system and proposals
Mr Johnson said a confidential Federal government committee called the National Airports Safeguarding Advisory Group (NASAG) is now reviewing an option to dramatically increase the area around Sydney Airport that would be classified as unacceptable for housing. The new option for determining how aircraft noise is measured has been discovered through Freedom of Information requests from members of the Urban Taskforce.
“A Government committee concerned about protecting the long term use of airports is seriously looking at a new way to define the impact of noise from these sites, Mr Johnson said.
This could add an extra 93 square kilometres of inner Sydney to the current areas zoned as being unacceptable for housing, significantly impacting the value of current housing stock, he said.
We are particularly concerned that a letter dated 2 May 2011 from Minister, Anthony Albanese to NSW Minister Brad Hazard specifically refers to the new system as the criteria under which residential development should not be approved.
“Currently airports in Australia use a system called ANEF with a measure of 25 ANEF being where housing is not acceptable to be located. From the minutes of the NASAG meetings it is clear that a new approach called N70=10 is being considered.”
“The Urban Taskforce has had highly respected acoustic engineers Wilkinson Murray examine the implications of this new measure on the area around Sydney Airport. The new N70=10 noise contour they have mapped extends the unacceptable area by 93 sq kilometres.
This could lead to thousands of existing homes becoming devalued through having an unacceptable noise zone listed on their land title, Mr Johnson said.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.