The extended timeframe allows residents some breathing space as community engagement takes place over the master plan. A community engagement framework developed by FACS promises to “work in partnership with the community to build the capacity of residents to enable them to make their own decisions”. Guiding community engagement will be the Waterloo Redevelopment Group, a body composed of local tenants and frontline workers.
City of Sydney to undertake ‘joint planning process’
It is now clear the City will play an important role in the redevelopment project. Greater contribution by the City to strategic planning will be welcomed by residents after public domain and amenity issues arose in 2016 following reports about high densities on the 19-ha Waterloo estate.
A City of Sydney spokesperson said the council “welcomes from the NSW government that the City of Sydney will play a significant role in setting the strategic planning principle and undertake a joint planning process and community engagement program”. In pursuit of better planning outcomes for design, public domain and amenity, the City will commit to ensuring its “density done well” principles inform the master plan.
The City will also support the 5-10 per cent affordable housing target drawn from the draft Central District Plan as a minimum for the site. The target, which applies at the rezoning stage to additional floor space in new developments, has been criticised for being too low and not sufficiently leveraging the value of government-held land to impact on affordability.
Innovation in housing delivery
As part of the master planning process, the government will consider innovative ways to deliver community and affordable housing. Speaking broadly, a FACS spokesperson commented that the NSW government was “looking to create opportunities for innovation through partnerships with the private and non-government sectors”.
Local resident Genevieve Murray, from design studio Future Method, is keen to see the innovative use of state-owned land. She says the Waterloo estate is a “perfect opportunity for game changing development strategies that support real affordability”. Murray points to alternative housing models like Nightingale Housing, which places a cap on profits and reduces costs by communalising ordinary household spaces like laundries and by reducing or eliminating car parking.
She wants to see the value of the Waterloo estate’s land “re-framed to enable and support diverse development models”, which may include not demolishing existing towers, Matavai and Turanga. The outcry over the Sirius Building’s planned demolition can still be heard but she rejects her view is a “brutalist fantasy” and is more to do with sustainability and equity.
Innovation may be more necessary now than ever. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who was criticised as Treasurer for not doing enough to ease the soaring cost of housing, was quick to focus the issue of affordability on a lack of supply. Her comments echo the federal Treasurer Scott Morrison.
In her first press conference as Premier, she distanced herself from remarks by former planning minister Rob Stokes that were critical of federal tax laws that favour investors. Ms Berejiklian was also antipathetic to a broad-based land tax to put downward pressure on house prices, an idea previously supported by Treasurer and ally, Dominic Perrottet.
Finding alternative ways to deliver high quality housing for low and moderate income households is also an objective of the Greater Sydney Commission (GSC), which released its draft district plans in November last year. A GCS spokesperson outlined several ways it is looking to improve housing affordability, beyond the 5-10 per cent affordable housing target.
These options include making affordable housing more attractive to institutional investors, such as superannuation funds and “cost effective and innovative building approaches, including pre-fabricated and modular housing, collective housing and more suitably designed quality compact housing forms”.
The broader discussion about housing affordability in Australia’s major cities may provide some worthy ideas for community groups and service providers participating in the master planning process in the coming year.
