Minister stands firm on housing target
Mosman will not be allowed to pause its low to mid-rise (LMR) housing target, despite being over halfway towards the allocated 500 homes.
Mosman Mayor Ann Marie Kimber said following a meeting in October, “(Mr Scully) was very clear the LMR will not be paused for any council. Any alternative would have to deliver at least, if not exceed, our current targets.”
Mr Scully told NL that the LMR centres were based on ‘critical infrastructure capacity, frequency and reliability of public transport, travel times to major centres, and access to goods and services.’
“Mosman is well placed to support more homes so young people, families and essential workers have a choice in where they live,” Mr Scully said. “We need every area to do their part to deliver more housing so we can address the state’s housing challenges.”
The government said Mosman had resisted change since the 1960s when restrictions were introduced by council, banning high-rise development by 1973. The LMR policy aimed to break this opposition, it added.
Mayor Kimber agreed that more housing was needed in Sydney, and Mosman needed to play its part. But the way government was addressing it would change Sydney in an ‘irreversible and not necessarily in a good way.’
Council has engaged an urban planner to prepare a strategic plan for Mosman on issues such as setbacks and green spaces. “I want to see what capacity we’re at across all of our infrastructure including stormwater, sewerage and water,” Mayor Kimber said. “And the big one is traffic and transport. (Spit Bridge) is a bottleneck that needs to be addressed. Increased density in Mosman and the Northern Beaches is only going to increase the whole corridor congestion.”
The reduction of the consultation period for state significant developments – which council has no say over – from 28 to 14 days concerned Mayor Kimber, who said council was looking at increasing developer contributions by up to 400% to fund infrastructure.
Council will not join Mosman resident Judith Pearson in her court case against the NSW Government over housing density, following debate at the October meeting, but will participate as an amicus curiae – a friend to the court.
Mayor Kimber encouraged the community to sign a resident-driven petition against a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to housing on the NSW Parliament website.