During the last few years there have been ongoing changes to planning laws and regulations, many designed to reduce so-called ‘red tape’. One of the most recent changes is the implementation of the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA).
While the HDA is not itself an approval authority, it is however a three person panel that evaluates major housing proposals and recommends which should be declared as a State Significant Development (SSD). More than 86,700 dwellings have been declared SSDs since the HDA started earlier this year, with more in the pipeline. The vast majority of these are apartment blocks.
This follows the earlier announcements of the Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Program. Stage 1 has eight accelerated precincts (including Hornsby) with a capacity of 60,000 new homes and Stage 2 applies to a further 37 stations.
On top of that we have the Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy. The Low-Rise component permits, with some exceptions, the subdivision of low density residential (R2) zoned land. Hornsby Council has applied for a dispensation to increase the minimum lot size for Heritage Conservation Areas. This would have the added advantage of protecting more of Hornsby’s rapidly dwindling tree canopy.
The NSW Government has now released a Pattern Book of housing designs to enable fast-tracked Complying Development (CDC) approvals in R1, R2 and R3 zones.
The Mid-Rise Housing Policy takes all of this to a new level (pardon the pun). It allows apartment blocks up to 6 storeys within 800 metres walking distance of 171 ‘town centres’ across metropolitan Sydney, the Central Coast, Illawarra Shoalhaven, and Hunter regions.
Asquith, Hornsby, Pennant Hills, Thornleigh and Waitara stations and centres are impacted within Hornsby Shire and Gordon, Killara, Lindfield, Pymble, Roseville, St Ives, Turramurra and Wahroonga stations and centres within Ku-ring-gai Shire.
Will all this rezoning alleviate housing affordability? Many economists and experts think not. Ku-ring-gai, Mosman, and other high-worth Local Government Areas are seeing house owners that were recently worth $4 million, being offered $12 million by developers.
In lower-cost areas in Hornsby Shire, where a free-standing home might once have been worth $1.5million, a developer can now put at least two and up to six dwellings on one lot. Families and first home buyers are being priced out of areas where developers can pay far more for a single dwelling. Even Hornsby Council warned that rezoning the whole of the Hornsby TOD precinct at once could lead to land banking.
For most of these developments, submissions can be made by the public to the relevant delegated authority — either the local council, a planning panel, or the NSW Government for SSDs. Right across Sydney there are local volunteer advocacy groups who can assist residents with how to make submissions, what is the applicable legislation and regulations, and what and where the relevant documentation regarding the development can be found.
In the Hornsby / Ku-ring-gai area these advocacy groups include Protecting Your Suburban Environment Inc (PYSE), Galston Area Residents Association (GARA), Byles Creek Valley Union (BCVU), Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust (BCCT), Friends of Berowra Valley, Westleigh Progress Association, Friends of Ku-ring-gai Environment (FOKE), and STEP Inc. All these groups are more than willing to help residents with submissions on local developments, so don’t hesitate to contact them.
