Barry O'Farrell's 172,000 Sydney housing boost proposal
The New South Wales Government has ambitious plans to supply 172,000 new homes across greater Sydney as current forecasts suggest that more than 1.3 million additional people will be living in Sydney by 2031, requiring 545,000 more homes.
Eight existing suburbs will be re-zoned to accommodate 30,000 extra new homes in high-density apartment blocks.
The eight sites chosen in the initial round of the Urban Activation Precincts program are:
Epping Town Centre (Hornsby Shire Council and Parramatta City Council)
North Ryde Station (City of Ryde)
Herring Road, Macquarie Park (City of Ryde)
Randwick (Randwick City Council)
Anzac Parade from Maroubra to Phillip Bay (Randwick City Council)
Wentworth Point (Auburn City Council)
Mascot Station (Botany Bay Council)
The plans for the Epping and North Ryde centres are already on public exhibition until 30 April, 2013, while planning work is beginning in the remaining precincts.
Above: artist's impression of North Ryde Station post-revitilisation. Courtesy of NSW government.
The government has also released greenfield sites on the city's north-west and south-west outskirts to build new houses, business parks and town centres over the next 20 years.
NSW minister for planning and infrastructure, Brad Hazzard, announced the impending rezoning of five precincts in the North West and South West Growth Centres to provide land for 30,250 homes and 29,000 jobs:
Austral and Leppington North (17,350 homes and 13,000 jobs)
Box Hill and Box Hill Industrial (9,600 homes and 16,000 jobs)
East Leppington (3,300 homes)
Planning will start soon on three additional growth centre precincts at Riverstone East, Vineyard and West Schofields for another 8,200 homes.
Premier Barry O'Farrell hopes the plan will contribute towards meeting the city's future housing needs.
"It's about ensuring that areas open up as the infrastructure is available," he said. "It's about better balancing the needs of this city.
"Ultimately economics drives everything.
"Our argument is the more blocks of land we can release the greater downward pressure we can put on housing.
"It has been so high for so long because under the former government not enough housing was developed because not enough land was being released," he said.
Above: artist's impression of Oxford St, Epping post-revitilisation. Courtesy of NSW government.
The announcement includes:
a) 27,400 new homes and 49,500 new jobs in centres around the eight new railway stations along the North West Rail Link
b) 30,000 new homes across eight existing urban areas to be revitalised under the Government’s new Urban Activation Precincts (UAP) program
c) Rezoning land for 30,250 new homes and 29,000 jobs across five precincts in Sydney’s Growth Centres near the new North West and South West Rail Links (and releasing three other precincts with the potential for 8,200 homes)
d) Immediate action to progress seven outer suburban greenfield sites with potential for 15,850 homes in response to the Government’s Potential Home Sites Program and investigate 13 sites with potential for 60,000 homes.
