This morning the NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin presented to Urban Taskforce memnbers on the devlopment of the draft Design and Place SEPP. The industry morning tea was kindly hosted by Urban Taskforce member and leading law firm Allens Linklaters.
 

The NSW Government Architect , Ms Abbie Galvin gave an articulate presentation with which there is much to agree. However the key point of difference is the EIE document’s failure to measure the impact of any change proposed against the cost of implementation (either through incresed costs or loss of yield). Nonetheless, Urban Taskforce sincerely thanks Abbie Galvin for making herself availaible and for her commitemnt to ongoing consultation.

The Urban Taskforce looks forward to actively contributing to the additional industry engagagement to further develop and improve the SEPP. In the meantime, we will continue to advocate to Government for greater consideration of the economic consequences of decision making across the planning system.

Click here to read the Urban Taskforce submission to the Design and Place SEPP EIE.

 

This new draft, State-wide guideline intends to inform the preparation of regional, district and local strategic plans, planning proposals and other strategic planning activities with regards to natural hazards considerations. The draft guideline refers to natural hazards identified as “posing a high or extreme risk to NSW” which comprises:

• bushfire
• coastal hazards including coastal erosion
• drought
• earthquake
• east coast low
• flood
• heatwave
• landslide
• storm
• tsunami

DPIE states the draft guideline:

• sets out eight guiding principles to inform land use planning decisions and manage natural hazard risk
• identifies the natural hazards relevant to NSW that should be considered through strategic planning of places
• explains key concepts related to natural hazard risk management
• discusses at a high level, the connection to existing policies, acts, regulations, guidelines and responsibilities.

The Urban Taskforce will be reviewing the exhibited documents and consulting with members prior to formulating a response.

Submissions are invited until 8th June 2021.

The exhibited documents can be accessed here.

The City of Sydney is exhibiting a draft Greening Sydney Strategy.

The vision of the Strategy is “for a greener Sydney that will help improve our health and wellbeing, reduce urban heat impacts, and bring nature into the city” to which Council then sets out a strategy to deliver this vision via 6 Directions being:

Direction 1 – Turn grey to green – includes a target of increasing overall green cover to 40% across the local area, including a minimum of 27% tree canopy by 2050 and an increase to the green cover on ‘property’ to 28%.

Direction 2 – Greening for all

Direction 3 – Cool and calm spaces

Direction 4 – Greener buildings – includes encouraging greener buildings through a green factor score, updating the green roof and wall policy, and planning controls.

Direction 5 – Nature in the City - includes strengthening urban nature protection measures in planning controls.

Direction 6 – Greening together

On first review, it appears the actions in the draft Greening Sydney Strategy have the capacity to impact the cost and feasibility of undertaking development in the City of Sydney.

The Urban Taskforce has never opposed greater public open space, improved tree canopy cover and greater sustainability in the buildings delivered for the growing population.  In fact, Urban Taskforce welcomed the NSW Public Spaces Program and further, we called for (and publicly welcomed) the decision by the Government to effectively expand that funding through the budget process in November last year.

The question is: who pays? Urban Taskforce argues that it is not fair to burden new home buyers and employment creators with the full cost of greening our cities.  That is why we warmly welcomed the decision of Government to provide an allocation from consolidated revenue for this purpose.  This spreads the cost of ‘greening’ across all taxpayers and reduces the additional costs effectively added to the price of new homes and workplaces.

It is manifestly unfair to burden new home buyers with the burden of fixing (or working up for) the public policy failures of the past. All tax payers should fund those worthy imperatives, not those who seek to deliver more housing and in so doing, reduce pressure on housing affordability.

The draft City of Sydney Greening strategy is on public exhibition until 5pm 24 May 2021.

Click here to access the suite of exhibition package for the draft Greening Sydney Strategy.
Click here to read the Urban Taskforce media release welcoming the Public Spaces Program.

DPIE has released for public comment a draft amendment to the Infrastructure SEPP “to safeguard the integrity of the Upper Canal and Warragamba Pipelines - Sydney’s bulk water supply infrastructure”.

The draft amendment proposes changes to the State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 (the Infrastructure SEPP) to:

1. identify infrastructure corridors around the Upper Canal and the two Warragamba Pipelines
2. introduce a new clause that triggers consideration of the WaterNSW Guidelines for Development Adjacent to the Upper Canal and Warragamba Pipelines for new developments within and adjacent to the corridor.

The proposed amendments will add infrastructure protection as a consideration in the determination of developments that may impinge on bulk water supply infrastructure. Those proposing to develop within the canal/pipeline corridors will need to consult the WaterNSW Guidelines for Development Adjacent to the Upper Canal and Warragamba Pipelines when preparing a development application.

The provisions do not result in the prohibition of any development.

The proposed amendment, outlined in the EIE, is on exhibition until 24 May 2021.

The relevant documents can be accessed here.

Ryde Council has prepared Masterplan Options on the back of earlier engagement on “ideas to revitalise” the West Ryde Town Centre.

Two options to guide future amendments to the Ryde LEP via a planning proposal include:

“Option 1- Key Sites Only - focuses on the delivery of change within the West Ryde Town Centre from the redevelopment of a few key sites that are likely to be redeveloped (or ‘turn over’) in the short-medium term as the site conditions (i.e., size, location, street frontage, and dimensions), ownership, and costs make it more viable for development.

Option 2 – Long Term Change - proposes to deliver gradual change resulting in a consistent built form over the long term across the West Ryde Town Centre. This option proposes to deliver some increase in height and density on select sites to encourage greater growth and public benefit across the town centre.”

The public exhibition of the options concludes Friday 14 May 2021.

Click here to access the relevant documents.

Project Remediate is a three-year program to help remove combustible cladding on an estimated 225 buildings known to the NSW Building Commissioner’s Cladding Taskforce.

Under the program eligible building owners will be helped through:

• interest free loans over a 10-year period with repayments to commence upon completion of the work
• assurance and project management services to provide technical and practical support to owners’ corporations and strata managing agents

Project Remediate is a voluntary program.

The Office of the NSW Building Commissioner has released a new video on its website –specifically targeted to owners’ corporations and strata managers.

To view the new video and to find out more about Project Remediate click here.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has published a frequently asked
question (FAQ) for authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) to clarify when an ADI rural
exposure needs to be classified as commercial property and income producing real estate.
 

APRA states that it “is appropriate to treat rural exposures as commercial property exposures where both of these conditions are met:

• the property has been acquired specifically for lease or resale, and
•  
• the servicing of the debt is dependent on such lease or resale. “

The full FAQ is available on the APRA website here.

The Melrose Park North Planning Proposal comprises three individual planning proposals that have been combined and supported by a site specific DCP and Planning Agreement.





The documents are on public exhibition until 5pm Monday 24th May and can be accessed here.

Watch this space ...

A prominent Urban Taskforce member is likely to be signing a contract with an international hotel chain soon.

This is good news and shows the economy is at least kicking in the Central River City.

New leadership confimed at Cameron Brae

Cameron Brae Group, a leading private land in South-West Sydney and highly-regarded Urban Taskforce members, today announced the appointment of Winton Anton and Tim Gavan as Co-CEOs effective immediately.