The Inner West Council’s plan to revitalise suburbs along a major decaying road has been rubbished by community leaders who claimed Sydney’s quality of life was being lost to developers.
Parramatta Road, which connects Western Sydney to the CBD, is notoriously known for its traffic congestion, derelict streets and empty storefronts slapped with “for lease” signs.
The corridor was flagged as a major project for renewal with the Inner West Council proposing rezoning residential properties for high-density living and businesses.
Local councillor Marghanita da Cruz, however, labelled the plan “developer driven not planning driven”.
She said the lack of public transport and the cutting down of canopies would not help deliver the bustling neighbourhood that council anticipates will arise with increased housing supply.
“With these upzonings, there’s not enough future proofing,” she said.
“No public transport being delivered; no improvement on walking and cycling; increasing density on where there’s houses now; decreasing the tree canopy.”
The area’s Planning and Heritage Advisory Committee Chair Louise Steer said the move to push housing into the already densely-populated area was “mania”.
“It will create a huge rental market with huge spiralling rents,” she said.
“What we want is organised development. You can’t just shove extra people into an area and hope for the best. You have to plan for infrastructure, people need recreation.”
The Inner West Council said they would not be able to provide comment until the community consultation phase is complete.
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The proposal was a directive of the NSW Government, which let the six councils Parramatta Road runs through determine how to deliver a renewal.
NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully said the corridor was well located for new homes.
“We are looking at ways we can deliver more density through this corridor to increase housing choice and affordability,” he said.
“A total of $198 million has been allocated to the six local councils to support 32 projects that improve open space and active transport links along the Parramatta Road corridor.”
But Steer argued vital green spaces and liveability would be lost to the plan.
“(Residents) are losing quality of life to population and density housing … we do not have an unlimited amount of land,” she said.
“Sydney now is nothing but a giant monopoly game.”
Sydney is the nation’s most densely populated city with more than 5.2 million residents, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The city’s booming migration rates have forced pressure on the housing supply, with the state government flagging the immediate need for dwellings as a priority.
Scully said the Minns government was working to “rebalancing housing growth” with a focus on “well-located homes” close to public transport and town centres.
