Transport Oriented Development Program


Many councils and community  groups, including the CWWPA, have expressed their concern about the NSW Government’s proposed changes to the planning laws for the Transport Oriented Development program. This resulted in a Legislative Council Inquiry into the TOD chaired by Ms Sue Higginson (Greens MP).

The hearings of the NSW Legislative Council Inquiry into the  Development of the Transport Oriented Development Program which will close on 24 July have made for interesting viewing. We encourage our members to read the transcripts which are available in this link.

One major concern expressed was that Sydney does not have the infrastructure to support this uplift of density in terms of the sewerage system, water, green space, hospitals, schools or even the transport network.

Many of the speakers were not opposed to higher density around transport hubs but not at the expense of heritage conservation and tree canopy. As  Merrill Witt said, “there is support for transport-oriented development as long as it’s done well, as long as it’s supported by enabling infrastructure and as long as it doesn’t trash heritage conservation areas.”

The NSW Government states on its TOD Program website that “by building more housing near the metro and rail stations, we can enable more people to live close to transport, jobs, services, night life and amenities.”

Many of the speakers pointed out that many people would not be able to afford these houses. The TOD is only proposing 2 percent affordable housing targets. Mayor Tanya Taylor pointed out that:

Stronger affordable housing requirements need to be implemented as a matter of urgency. We recently increased our affordable housing requirements from 4 per cent to between 7 per cent and 10 per cent. The TOD program should be delivering similar rates in perpetuity, dedicated to the community, not just for a temporary period before they revert to the market, and not into private hands, where regulation and monitoring will be extremely difficult and costly. We need to make sure the program doesn’t just deliver houses. It also needs to deliver the infrastructure required to support them: the additional open space, the stormwater upgrades, the schools, the roads, the additional bus and train services, and the bus interchanges. We need more information on how the program is going to address these important issues.

Other concerns included: