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

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 Labor-dominated Inner West Council, led by 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.

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

Byrne urged councillors to adopt the proposal, 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 council 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, 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 in response to public feedback included reducing the development capacity around the three train stations by 5000 dwellings. The state government plans to rezone Parramatta Road for 8000 homes in Leichhardt and Camperdown.

One of the central criticisms of the scheme by opponents and Greens politicians was that it required 2 per cent of new homes to be affordable housing, when they wanted provision for 30 per cent.

Byrne introduced a series of amendments, which included converting five council carparks to accommodate a potential 350 new social housing dwellings.

The council will also replicate a City of Sydney scheme which would 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 projects.

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.

Greens councillor Izabella Antoniou urged the council to go back to the drawing board to consider the rules around social and affordable housing, and the impact of more density on 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.”

Antoniou was among several councillors who unsuccessfully attempted to have the matter deferred; however, the proposal was adopted with the support of the 15-member council’s eight Labor councillors. The Greens, Liberal and Independent councillors voted against the scheme.

Labor councillor Vicki 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.”

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

Margo Cashman, of Dulwich Hill, said the forum was “disgraceful”, and lashed the council for “locked-out residents, stacked speaker lists, [and] a forum designed for show not substance”.

Earlier on Tuesday, Premier Chris Minns was asked whether the number of supporters who spoke at the meeting 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.”

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