The Property Council of Australia has welcomed the rapid progress made by the NSW Government to deliver the new Transport Oriented Development (TOD) State Environment Planning Policy (SEPP) but remains concerned the final planning controls fall short on their potential.
"We applaud the NSW Government for delivering this bold and significant planning reform so quickly," said Property Council NSW Executive Director, Katie Stevenson.
"The Property Council were the original architects of the TOD SEPP, and we welcome the speed with which the NSW Government has sought to finalise these new planning controls that will facilitate the delivery of thousands of new homes.
"It's good to see the NSW Government have listened to industry and sought to address concerns around the floor space ratio, lot size and width, and street frontage controls".
Ms Stevenson said that while the release of the SEPP represents an important milestone in the NSW Government's reform journey, industry will be disappointed with the decision not to address concerns around building heights.
"Industry was adamant that the height controls under the TOD SEPP would need to double to make delivering the next wave of homes commercially viable.
"It is disappointing to see that these calls have fallen on deaf ears and the NSW Government will proceed with height controls that are effectively no different to what will be allowed under the mid-rise planning reform.
Ms Stevenson said the TOD SEPP represents a once in a generation opportunity to reshape the future pattern of development in NSW so it's unclear why the NSW Government has made it harder than necessary to add future sites to the SEPP by having it apply in selected local government areas, rather than statewide.
"There is still a major spatial gap in the TOD Program across Greater Sydney which this SEPP should have addressed.
"To give industry the certainty and confidence it needs to invest, we're calling on the government to announce a timetable so that the community and industry know when to expect future tranches of TOD sites to be announced.
"It's also vital that sites selected in future tranches of this program are more equitably distributed throughout our city, so that more homes are provided right across Sydney and the regions in line with the Premier's original vision.
The Property Council is also concerned with the requirement for affordable housing to be held in-perpetuity under the Tier Two Program.
"While we support the need for more affordable housing, particularly in these critical areas undergoing significant change, an in-perpetuity requirement will place further pressure on already strained development feasibilities.
"Under incredibly challenging market dynamics, mandatory affordable housing requirements must be carefully calibrated and subject to serious viability testing.
"For this to work, Government must change the current definitions of affordable housing and rethink the approach to managing and monitoring affordable housing stock," said Ms Stevenson.
We encourage the Premier and the Minister for Planning to work with us to address these concerns that industry has raised during consultation to ensure we don't squander the significant opportunity these bold reforms present.
