NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes meeting on September 5 with Uniting Church NSW and ACT Moderator the Rev. Myung Hwa Park, Helen Wood from Uniting and David Barrow of Sydney Alliance. Photo: supplied
A key tool in tackling affordability, experts believe, is the adoption of clear and adequate Inclusionary Zoning (“IZ” or “value sharing”): specifying that minimum percentages of units in major new developments whose value is affected by rezoning changes should offer rents affordable by people on lower incomes.
IZ is central to a campaign by partners in the Sydney Alliance – including the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of NSW and ACT and its social justice agency Uniting.
The Alliance – including social justice, faith, church, union and community groups – has been meeting with NSW cabinet ministers and key MPs across Sydney to urge the adoption of a 15 per cent minimum IZ quota to help address Sydney’s worsening housing affordability crisis.
Lack of accessible affordable housing in the NSW rental market, especially around the major cities, has reached crisis proportions.
Sydney Alliance Lead Organiser David Barrow says: “Thousands of people, including some of the most vulnerable in our community, can’t find or keep a stable home – undermining their ability to hold jobs, raise kids, educate or train themselves, and stay physically and mentally healthy.”
Uniting and the Alliance are calling on the government, through the GSC, to establish district-wide IZ targets in partnership with local councils. The government has recently announced that this will happen through the GSC draft plans, but has flagged a low level of only 5-10 per cent.
Alliance partners say a minimum of at least 15 per cent of units in major new developments should be set at lower-income-affordable levels; and 30 per cent in larger developments on government-owned land. This percentage should cover the whole developments, not merely the “uplift” of new units added by the rezoning.
“This can and should be done,” says David Barrow, “as it has been in at least nine countries, in cities like London, Rotterdam and Galway, in over 200 communities in the US, and in Adelaide for the past decade – with no harm to housing prices or supply, and consistent with healthy developer returns.”
The campaign for IZ has been endorsed by a wide range of housing, planning, social justice and equity, church and other community organisations and researchers – and by an increasing number of politicians of all persuasions.
Former NSW Liberal Premier Nick Greiner says IZ should be a key priority for the Baird Government as it offers “significant economic and social benefits which cannot be ignored”.
Sydney Alliance partners are making submissions to the GSC over the coming months as it compiles its package of recommendations to the Baird Government on best planning options for the city.
The GSC is holding community drop-in discussions on Sydney planning in its six Sydney districts – including the Central district at Redfern Town Hall 10am–1pm on Saturday November 26 (Local Government Areas of Botany Bay, Burwood, Canada Bay, Inner West, Randwick, Strathfield, Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra).
