‘A pivotal moment’: Sydney council backs plans for up to 30,000 new homes

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Councillors in Sydney’s inner west have been cheered and booed as they narrowly backed a controversial proposal to rezone a swath of established suburbs to make room for up to 30,000 extra homes over 15 years.

The Inner West Council, led by Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne, voted 8-7 to endorse its Fairer Future plan to increase housing density, but not before they adopted changes to boost the capacity for social and affordable dwellings.

Critics and supporters rallied at a public forum on the council’s Fairer Futures changes in Ashfield last week.

Amid heightened debate about more intensive development across Sydney, members of the public gallery chanted “scrap the plan” at an extraordinary hours-long meeting to debate the proposal on Tuesday night.

But Byrne urged councillors to adopt the plan, stating the shortage of affordable homes confronting the community was “so deep, and so immediate, that now’s the time for action. If you do nothing, you’re going backwards”.

“If we scrap the plan tonight, in 10 years’ time, the problem – which is already a crisis – will be far worse, and we are in danger of becoming a community in which young people, renters and essential workers can’t afford to live,” he said.

Proposed changes to the area’s planning rules, which determine the location, shape and form of development, have received a mixed reception. It followed the council’s rejection of the state government’s transport-oriented development (TOD) scheme, which aimed to deliver 7800 new homes over five years, to draw up their own plans.

The scheme proposes to deliver 20,000 to 30,000 homes in taller buildings of mostly six to 11 storeys, with some up to 22 storeys, clustered around Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, and Ashfield train stations, as well as light rail stops and shopping strips in a bid to protect heritage precincts and more evenly distribute higher-density housing across the council area. Changes were made in response to public feedback, including reducing the development capacity around the three heavy rail stations by 5000 dwellings.

One of the central criticisms of the proposal by opponents and Greens politicians was that it only required 2 per cent of new homes to be affordable housing for low-income earners when they wanted provision for 30 per cent.

Byrne outlined a series of amendments to the proposal, which included converting five council carparks to accommodate a potential 350 new social housing dwellings, and to replicate a City of Sydney scheme which will mean all residential developments on private land in the rezoned areas must include 2 to 3 per cent affordable housing, with a 20 per cent contribution required for private developers allowed to build bigger developments.

The council will also allow churches and faith-based charities to redevelop their land with residences so long as the projects comprise 30 per cent social housing.

Shops along Marrickville Road, Dulwich Hill, which is in line for more housing.

Greens councillor Izabella Antoniou urged the council to go back to the drawing board to better consider the rules around social and affordable housing, and the impact of increased density on the area’s infrastructure.

“Currently, people do not trust us to actually deliver this uplift in density. More needs to be done to make sure we’re actually delivering for current and future residents so we can rebuild trust we have unfortunately broken,” she said.

Antoniou said debate on the council’s proposal had been “purposefully divisive”, and opponents were “a broad church – young, old, renters, owners, people inside the Labor Party”.

“The NIMBY-YIMBY divide is very convenient because it flattens the issue, gags opposition, and obscures the details of what’s actually going on.”

Councillors on Tuesday voted to endorse the council’s alternative plan to a state-led rezoning.

Antoniou was among several councillors who unsuccessfully attempted to have the matter deferred.

Labor councillor Liz Clay felt a responsibility to support the plan as she was “privileged to have a home the inner west”.

“It would be a disservice to those in need now, and future generations, to deny them the same opportunity.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Premier Chris Minns was asked whether the number of supporters who had spoken at the council’s forum on the rezoning signalled a shift in Sydneysiders’ attitudes towards residential development.

“I hope so, but my suspicion is we’re all on probation, and there’s definitely a willingness to see new housing, but they want to see it done right,” Minns told a conference run by the HousingNow! lobby group.

“They want to see the amenity that comes with it. They want to see the public transport. They want to see the infrastructure. This is still an arm wrestle.”

Housing Minister Rose Jackson, also at the conference, criticised “so-called progressives” who made “spurious objections” to housing developments or broader plans for not including enough social and affordable housing.

“It really frustrates me when people weaponise this incredibly important work against new housing delivery.”

Dozens of protesters and supporters attended a fiery public forum on the rezoning last week, when nearly half of the 80 speakers had voiced support for the plan.

Local opponent Margo Cashman, of Dulwich Hill, said the public forum was “nothing short of disgraceful”, and lashed the council for “locked-out residents, stacked speaker lists, a forum designed for show not substance”.

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