Sydney’s floor space ratios for apartment car parking needs consistency: Urban Taskforce
Parking is a hot topic for apartment developments. Some see current minimum car space requirements in developments as necessities and others see them as restrictive.
This makes the new planning guidelines crucial for ensuring a practical approach for apartment living across Sydney.
The Urban Taskforce says that they’ve been involved in the development of the new guidelines for apartment living, which sees a proposal to reduce car parking requirements for apartments within 400 metres of a rail station.
In fact, as Property Observer reported yesterday, the reductions will see apartments within these areas requiring no car spaces, under the draft guidelines announced by Pru Goward, who said this may see the prices of new apartments reduced by $50,000 as a result. These guidelines are likely to cover 22 council areas.
Urban Taskforce chief executive Chris Johnson says many apartment dwellers have a clear and obvious preference to use their local public transport.
“The minimum requirements still allow more parking if the market supports this,” says Johnson.
“The previous design code had been over ridden by some councils wanting to set their own standards. The new amendments to the State Environmental Planning Policy makes it clear that council development control plans cannot be inconsistent with the Apartment Design Guide,” he says.
He notes that this applies for specifics such as balconies and solar access, as well as other criteria.
“The planning policy specifically identifies standards that cannot be used as grounds to refuse development consent including ceiling height, apartment areas and car parking provisions,” he says.
Above ground parking is an area they want to consider in detail, due to prohibitive costs of below ground parking.
This, says Johnson, may require the government to review the impact of floor space ratio requirements in this area.
“It is important that the state government sets these standards rather than allowing each individual council to have separate controls,” he says.