The government has made no secret of its desire to increase infill density in Sydney’s inner suburbs because of the lower cost of associated infrastructure such as transport and public spaces compared to new greenfield developments on the urban fringe.
But faced with long development application wait times and stubbornly low housing numbers,the government will seek to overhaul the system to streamline approvals in inner-ring suburbs.
The reform package will also allow developers who met capital threshold requirements to progress rezoning proposals and stage one development applications concurrently,as opposed to the current system,which requires the rezoning assessments to be completed before a DA can begin.
Despite that concession,industry stakeholders engaged in consultation have been lobbying for the government to allow “snap” rezoning within the proposed transport districts. Property Council of Australia NSW executive director Katie Stevenson said the existing system meant any rezoned land was unlikely to see construction completed and “keys in the door of new homes” until mid-2029 “at the earliest”.
“We cannot wait for an accelerated precinct planning process to take place over six,12 or 18 months if we are to deliver the record levels of housing required of us over the five-year window of the National Housing Accord,” she said.
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While high-density apartments around rail or metro stations would form the core of the rezoned districts,the government also plans to encourage medium to low density developments,stretching out up to 1.2 kilometres from the centre of a precinct,to maximise land use.
Stevenson said she was working with the NSW Government Architect to design a list of best practice,well-executed housing to help “build a social licence for more terraces,townhouses,villas and three to six storey apartments”.
The list was expected to assist the Government Architect formulate off-the-shelf,medium-density and pre-approved developments to be replicated across Sydney and expedited through the planning system.
Minns last month expressed his appreciation for the approach,known as “pattern book” designs,describing the construction of low-rise,three or four-storey apartment blocks as “the future of NSW”.