Media Release
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne
Inner West Council has today released our Fairer Future for the Inner West plan to fix the housing supply crisis in our community.
The plan will enable an additional 35 000 homes across the Inner West to be built over the next 15 years, meaning that thousands more essential workers, young people and renters can live in the community they love.
This will be achieved through rezonings that will allow increased residential densities around transport hubs and main streets with 6 – 11 storey buildings in these precincts.
A Fairer Future has been developed as an alternative to the NSW Government's housing reforms and achieves more homes across the whole of the Inner West, with a fairer and more even distribution of density across the whole area.
These plans have been developed by independent planning and architectural experts and Council staff, through a block-by-block assessment of where housing can best be located.
Heritage Conservation Areas are proposed to be protected, with the higher densities in town centres and transport hubs allowing for the necessary new homes.
The plan is underpinned by a detailed commercial viability analysis that demonstrates the increase in densities needed to make development feasible and to ensure that the new homes are actually delivered.
Importantly, A Fairer Future includes a new allowance for development of lands owned by churches and religious based charities provided 30 per cent of housing is dedicated as not-for-profit in perpetuity.
The draft plan is a report to the elected representatives and will be considered at the Council meeting on May 20 and then placed on public exhibition until July.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said:
"A Fairer Future for the Inner West plan is a blueprint for how we can fix the housing supply crisis in our own backyard."
"The Inner West is an amazing community, made up of people from all walks of life, but we simply don't have enough homes here for people to live in.
"This is driving up the costs of housing, making it unaffordable for many Inner Westies, especially younger people, renters, and essential workers to live in the community they love.
"We are determined to act now so that they do have a future in our Inner West.
"Just as importantly, we must build the homes needed so that our children and grandchildren will have a place to live here in the decades to come.
"The draft plan is an excellent start and is the most comprehensive response to the housing supply crisis put forward by any Council in NSW.
"There are however some obvious adjustments and improvements to the draft plans that I intend to propose to Councillors.
"New, not-for-profit housing for essential workers and lower income residents should be our highest priority public benefit from developer contributions in rezoned areas.
"We believe that with the scale of development proposed that we can achieve much more not-for profit housing than just 2 per cent, and that these homes should be owned by the Council in perpetuity and managed by community housing providers.
"We will invite the community housing sector to help us design this program to ensure the maximum social justice benefit.
"We should incorporate the 3000 – 5000 homes expected in the Bays Precinct into our plans, constituting the largest uplift of any location in the Inner West.
"The scale of development in Parramatta Road will need to be greater than the 6 storeys currently proposed by the NSW Government and should be more like the 9 – 11 storey scale identified for other locations in the Inner West.
"The proposal for significant uplift in Croydon is out of keeping with the zoning proposed by Burwood Council for their section of the suburb. We will need to go back to the drawing board on that to ensure controls are harmonised across all of Croydon."
Please find all the reports informing the Fairer Future for the Inner West plan and the dates for community engagement here:
A Fairer Future for the Inner West
