The revolt against Sydney’s break-neck population growth and declining liveability last year forced the NSW Government to postpone plans to force councils to take on more infill development. However, that moratorium is now coming to an end, meaning that from July, Sydney Councils will be forced to accommodate swathes of medium and high density housing. From Domain:
Under the medium-density housing code announced in April last year, duplexes, terraces and manor houses — a two-storey building made up of four dwellings — can be approved as complying developments, on blocks as narrow as 12 metres in as little as 20 days.
These properties would skip the development application process, prompting fears of a development-forced strain on infrastructure that is already groaning under Sydney’s growing population.
The resulting backlash saw former planning minister Anthony Roberts hit the brakes on the new rules a month after they were announced, with the code ultimately deferred by a year in 49 municipalities, to give the councils time to review their local housing strategies and update their local environmental plans. The changes were delayed by two years in Ryde, one of the city’s fastest growing areas…
But nearly a year on, more than half of all affected councils are understood to be unprepared. Many have requested more time before the code is introduced or a permanent exemption. Increased minimum lot sizes and banning manor houses are among changes councils want to make to their own rules.
The overdevelopment and destruction of liveability across Sydney is inevitable as long as the ‘Big Australia’ mass immigration policy is allowed to continue.
According to Urban Taskforce projections, Sydney will transform into a high-rise ‘battery chook’ city mid-century, whereby only one quarter of all homes will be detached houses:
Moreover, modelling from Infrastructure Australia’s shows that liveability in Sydney will decline further as the city’s population grows to 7.4 million people by 2046, irrespective of whether the city builds up like New York, sprawls-out like Los Angeles, or does a London-style combination. That is, traffic congestion will unambiguously worsen and access to jobs, schools, hospitals and green space will all decline:
Therefore, Sydney is facing a future whereby only the wealthy elite will be able to afford to live in a detached house with a backyard, while the ordinary folk are crammed into high density slums with worsening amenity.
