07 February 2006
Key Points:
The NSW Government has released its metropolitan strategy for greater Sydney for the next 25 years. The strategy aims to provide for significant growth in Sydney which is financially, economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. The strategy proposes five "cities" within Sydney, each supported by its own infra-structure and communities, as well as 10 "specialised" economic and employment centres and 12 "major" commercial centres. The strategy draws some support from recent reforms to planning laws, but more detail in the Strategy and more legislative reform are needed.
The NSW Government has released its metropolitan strategy for greater Sydney for the next 25 years. Entitled "City of Cities – A Plan for Sydney's Future", the Strategy was released in December 2005. At the heart of the Strategy is infrastructure planning. As the Premier stated in a media release on 4 December 2005, "Sydney will grow according to an achievable plan where growth and infrastructure go hand in hand".
The Strategy has been driven by predictions that, between 2004 and 2031, Sydney's population will grow by 1.1 million people, which the Government anticipates will mean that 640,000 new homes and 500,000 new jobs will be required. While a number of broad policy objectives and some more specific plans have been provided, concerns have been expressed about the absence of detail in the Strategy on the implementation of those policies and plans.
This article outlines some of the Strategy's key ideas and comments on how some recent legislative reforms relate to those ideas.
Aims and structure of the Strategy
The Strategy sets out five aims:
The Strategy is structured to comprise seven interrelated "strategies" dealing with the following subjects: economy and employment, centres and corridors, housing and human services, transport, environment and resources, parks and public places, and implementation and governance.
The centrepiece of the Strategy is the development of five "cities" within greater Sydney – the two "harbour cities" of the Sydney CBD and North Sydney, and the three "river cities" of Parramatta, Liverpool and Penrith. The Government intends that this approach will (among other things) make the facilities of a city centre accessible to more Sydney residents, make transport systems more manageable, and reduce the recent pressure to increase population density in many established suburbs.
In addition, the Strategy proposes the enhancement of 10 "specialised centres" (which are areas containing major airports, ports, hospitals, universities, research and business activities that perform particular economic and employment roles) and 12 "major centres" (which have major shopping and business facilities for surrounding areas).
Infrastructure in the Strategy
In recent years the Government has completed, or nearly completed, the orbital road network around greater Sydney, and the Strategy proposes that this network be utilised to support economic and community growth. While some important enhancements of Sydney's road system are proposed, the emphasis of future transport infrastructure planning in the Strategy appears to be on:
In order to capitalise on the availability of passenger transport, the Strategy indicates that there will be considerable emphasis on developing land around train and bus stations. The pressure to develop suburbs near these stations is likely to continue, as an exception to the policy of maintaining current population densities in established suburbs.
The Strategy also considers in some detail the proposals for freight movement to, from and within greater Sydney, including the recently approved expansion of Port Botany, the establishment of a larger network of intermodal freight terminals and the construction of freight rail lines.
The provision of energy and water infrastructure continues to generate significant debate in Sydney. According to the Strategy, the proposal for a desalination plant will be progressed, as will investigations into water recycling. The energy supply policy in the Strategy will await the finalisation of the Government's Energy White Paper.
One of the main comments expressed in relation to the Strategy is that more commitment to, and detailed planning for, specific infrastructure projects is required[1]. Since infrastructure underpins most elements of the Strategy, a commitment to specific projects and detailed planning are vital to the success of the Strategy.
Support for the Strategy in planning laws
The Strategy will draw support from a number of legislative reforms in the last few years, primarily under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 ("Planning Act").
The new approvals regime for major projects in Part 3A of the Planning Act, together with the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) for major projects (both of which commenced operation in mid-2005), gives the NSW Government planning approval powers in key areas of public and private sector development which will drive the Strategy. The development of a standard form local environmental plan, which was released for comment in October 2005, should simplify local government planning for all stake-holders and facilitate broad-scale planning across local government boundaries.
The Government has also foreshadowed the release of a draft SEPP for the proposed growth centres in Sydney's north-west and south-west within the next few months.
However, stakeholders are awaiting the finalisation of important guidelines for the implementation of Part 3A. In addition, there is a need for infrastructure-related SEPPs, to facilitate the provision of key public infrastructure and to assist with the management of competing land uses between infrastructure and sensitive land uses (such as residential developments).
The courts have said that a decision-maker is entitled to take a government policy into account in determining a development application under the Planning Act for which the policy is relevant. It is likely that a similar approach would be taken to applications under Part 3A of the Planning Act. However, a policy should not be given determinative weight, and otherwise the weight which a decision-maker should give to the policy will depend on circumstances such as how well-developed it is[2]. So it is likely that a policy document which is not yet been finalised, as is the case for parts of the Strategy (particularly in relation to infrastructure), will be given less weight in the decision-making process than a policy document which has been completed.
The overhaul of the development contributions regime in the Planning Act, the final stages of which commenced in late 2005, extend the scope of development contributions to address State government infrastructure, and provide greater flexibility for developers and government agencies. The challenge now will be to make the new regime work so that there is appropriate financial support for infrastructure without requiring developers to shoulder an unreasonable cost burden.
The staged implementation of the BASIX (or Building Sustainability Index) certification scheme - the mechanism by which the Government requires new developments to achieve water and energy savings goals - should encourage savings on the demand side of the natural resource equation and thereby reduce consumption. However, neither BASIX nor any similar scheme applies to commercial or industrial developments at this stage, although there are suggestions that some new non-residential developments are incorporating resource-saving measures[3]. In addition, there is no similar requirement for existing developments.
Concluding comments
When introducing the Strategy late last year, the Premier stated that detailed plans for the delivery of infrastructure and the development of growth centres and "sub-regions" would be released "in coming months". One of the most important of these will be the proposed State Infrastructure Strategy. It is hoped that these plans will provide the detail which is needed to enable stakeholders to plan on the implementation of the Strategy.
[1] A group of key stakeholders - the Housing Industry Association, the National Council of Social Services, the Property Council of Australia, the State Chamber of Commerce, the Total Environment Centre and Unions NSW - has issued a Scorecard on the Strategy. See, for example, www.propertyoz.com.au, www.thechamber.com.au and www.tec.org.au.
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2] See Patrick Autocare Pty Ltd v Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources [2005] NSWLEC 277 and (No 2) [2005] NSWLEC 412, which concerned a proposal for an intermodal freight terminal in south-western Sydney.[3] "Owners switch to energy efficient devices", Angela Grasso, Australian Property Review, 16 January 2006.
For further information, please contact Nick Thomas.
