The Inner West Council will vote in early March 2024 on the rezoning – we need you to let Councillors know the community is against this plan.
Go to our Take Action page to learn more about how you can help.
There are a number of planning issues involved in the Rezoning Proposal.
1. Parramatta Road Corridor Urban Transformation Strategy 2016
This strategy takes precedence over every other planning scheme or instrument. It has been issued as a Ministerial Directive and Councils and planning panels are legally required to comply with its provisions. As we know PRCUTS mandates the rezoning to R3 (at a minimum) for 5 blocks north of Parramatta Road in West Leichhardt. Council and the regional planning panel are now proceeding to initiate re-zonings in our area in obedience to the provisions of PRCUTS.
But PRCUTS is not working if the aim is to revitalise Parramatta Road itself. For this reason IWC is well within its rights to call for the suspension and review of the strategy. At present it’s acting as a cover and inducement to developers and not a means to bring back commerce and employment along Parramatta Road.
See ‘Parramatta road to be come a vibrant urban corridor’ says planning minister:
https://www.nsw.gov.au/news/parramatta-road-to-become-a-vibrant-urban-corridor
2. Inner West Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020
This is the document that ties together all the Inner West Council’s planning policies. It is meant to guide future development out to 2036. Its executive statement says it is based on three goals – sustainability and resilience, maintaining the character of our communities, and encouraging housing affordability.
The planning proposal covering West Leichhardt/Taverners Hill clearly runs counter to those guiding principles of the LSPS.
3. High and medium-rise development near transport hubs
The theory is that people packed into dense development at transport hubs will use the public transport and either leave their cars at home or do without a car. There is, in fact, little or no empirical evidence for this assumption. A moment’s reflection would make you suspend judgment on the claim.
The Council planners make the demolition and redevelopment of West Leichhardt conditional on the state government committing to a mass transit bus system along Parramatta Road. Leaving aside how easy it is for politicians to make a commitment, or a promise, that they can wriggle out of later, such a mass transit system would only work if there was an increase in jobs in the CBD or along Parramatta Road itself. We know the CBD has hit a brick wall in terms both of employment and retail; it is not a growing magnet for travellers. The failure to revitalise Parramatta Road means that thriving employment, or shopping and entertainment options, are not happening along the road either. In fact it is more likely that new residents will continue to use their cars to get to work, shopping and entertainment. In other words, bunching development at public transport nodes is a recipe for increased car congestion. What is most likely is more people using their cars.
Hundreds of new dwellings in our small area will intensify the already congested Tebbutt and Foster Streets. Yet the assumption behind the planning proposal is that there will be a 10-30% reduction in car use for trips.
See ‘Pipe dreams: the shortcomings of ideologically based planning’ by the late Tony Recsei
https://tapri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/v13n2_7recsei.pdf
4. The notion that ‘excess’ infrastructure capacity makes more development possible
This is another purely ideological assertion. In fact, the basic infrastructure in our area was designed and installed for single and double-storey dwellings usually containing one family. It was not designed for a population four or five times the present population.
Historically there has been a shortage of certain infrastructure in our suburb. The most outstanding example of this is public open space. At 16 square metres of parkland per resident, IWC has the third lowest amount of open space per person in the Sydney metropolitan area. It is well short of the Department of Planning’s aim of 28 square metres. As we know, there is an acute and perennial shortage of both playing fields and areas of passive recreation in the Inner West. It is why we fought so hard to stop the carve-up and sell-off of Callan Park. The dramatic increase in population being aimed for in the planning proposal, will only worsen this situation.
There is no upgrade of infrastructure or new open space being proposed in the current planning proposal for West Leichhardt.
5. The claim that increased supply will solve the housing affordability crisis
The proposed planning scheme for West Leichhardt at least is honest enough to admit there will be no affordable housing in the proposed redevelopment of the area.
The proposed rezoning and redevelopment of West Leichhardt is one part of a wider the planning proposal that includes areas in Norton Street Leichhardt and Croydon. Nearly 1700 new dwellings are proposed – with just 14 being classed as affordable! (‘Affordable’ being defined as 75-80% of market rents for this area – scarcely affordable for many people.)
The building and finance sectors at present thrive on high and rising prices for housing. They will not welcome any lowering of prices and such a trend would likely deter development. As those who argue against rent controls point out, if you make housing less expensive, or in other words, less profitable, then that will deter investment in building new housing.
Read the Lungs Of Leichhardt Submission to Council
For more information on this and other issues, see the Lungs of Leichhardt community group’s full submission to the Inner West Council.