Planning and Infrastructure Policy

Principles

Getting the Balance Right

1. The NSW Greens seek to achieve a balance in the planning process to protect the human habitat and residual natural environment within this built environment.

2. The planning process currently leads to outcomes that are changing the structure and form of the human habitat without regard to the legitimate desires or best interests of the community.

3. Urban centres are under enormous pressure. Meanwhile rural, regional and coastal communities are feeling pressure to rezone for urban dwellings land that is best used for agricultural purposes.

Meeting the Changing Needs of the Community

4. Sydney, already Australia’s largest city is situated in a basin with natural fixed boundaries. Government policies to increase densities in existing suburbs have failed to alleviate urban sprawl. The announcement of the North and South West Growth Centres is the latest manifestation of this.

5. The current policy of pursuing both urban consolidation and urban sprawl has been an unmitigated failure, resulting in the destruction of heritage and amenity in both existing suburbs, and on the urban fringe. This policy approach is untenable and has resulted in deteriorating urban amenity and environmental health.

6. Clear boundaries for metropolitan areas should be set, taking account of;

• 6.1 Urban infrastructure - particularly public transport
• 6.2 Sustainability of social support systems and quality of life
• 6.3 The unique topography of the Sydney Basin and its effect on pollution of the atmosphere and waterways
• 6.4 The need to retain agricultural land and resist redevelopment of this land
• 6.5 The natural boundary of the Nepean Hawkesbury River systems
• 6.6 The importance of localised food production around urban centres, and especially the Sydney Basin.

Minimising Environmental Impact

7. Successive governments have ignored their obligations of stewardship of the public interest. The Environmental Planning and Assessment (EP&A) Act (1979), which was designed to protect environmental interests, has been progressively eroded. The cumulative effect of these changes has been to weaken the central piece of legislation underpinning planning and development in NSW - making it easier for developers and harder for meaningful community input. This has undermined sound planning in NSW.

8. Laws governing the planning process are drafted by political parties that receive large campaign contributions from developers. Genuine concerns by residents and environmentalists are often viewed as obstructionist. Decisions are often made behind closed doors, under the cloud of donations, with public consultation  a matter of public relations.

9. The community exerts significantly less influence over the planning process and it is consulted for endorsement of projects that are already formulated, when its ability to make valuable and constructive suggestions at project formulation stage are lost. In addition, the community cannot compete with developers in legal challenges to developments.

10. The destruction of remnant urban lands of high ecological, amenity and heritage values, including the destruction of Sandon Point, the ADI site in Western Sydney and the proposed development at Cooks Cove attest to the failure of existing policies to protect woodlands, the waterfront, wetlands and other areas of ecological and social significance.
Urban Density

11. While accepting the potential environmental, economic and affordability benefits of increased urban densities, the Greens NSW believe that current policies of urban consolidation have:

• 11.1  Failed to stop the spread of the growth of Sydney at its fringe, which is consuming important ecological and primary producing lands;
  
• 11.2 Failed to provide the vital infrastructure, including transport infrastructure, to make urban consolidation a success;
  
• 11.3 Largely resulted in poor quality shared and public open space;
  
• 11.4 Failed to reduce housing unit prices and contribute to affordability;
  
• 11.5 Largely failed to deliver the promised environmental benefits with respect to increased use of public transport and improved air quality; and
  
• 11.6 Produced massive and unsustainable profits for a number of developers that continue to drive unrealistic profit expectations, and fuel unsustainable housing prices.
  

The True Costs of Development

12. The true costs of development are often hidden. These costs include pollution, excavation, site levelling, cut and fill development, land fill, changed watercourses, destruction of natural open space and loss of solar access, transportation of building materials, and the public subsidies required to provide roads and service infrastructure.

13. Hidden social costs include reduction in housing choice and affordable housing, housing that is unable to be adapted according to changing needs of individuals and of society, and development that marginalizes sections of the community through reliance on the private motor vehicle e.g. unemployed youth, the elderly and the disabled.

14. The planning process favours the private motor vehicle and does not support or strengthen other modes of transport such as public transport, cyclists and pedestrians. The transportation needs of youth, the elderly and the disabled are often ignored in the planning process.

15. The planning process focuses on site development without significant regard to the surrounding area. Sites are treated as green field rather than being treated as a component of existing built fabric.

16. The development industry has consistently tried to undermine and dilute the developer contribution sections of the EP&A Act. Developer contributions, including section 94 levies, are fundamental in allowing councils to plan for and fund infrastructure needs.
 Infrastructure Provision

17. Vital infrastructure necessary for successful communities, including public transport, community centres, youth & aged care facilities, schools, hospitals and childcare centres, sports and entertainment venues, and public open space is inadequate or provided too late.

18. Urban development consolidation has been allowed to occur with little or no consideration of the impact of existing infrastructure. The result is inadequate, poorly maintained and in some cases outdated infrastructure.

19. The unwillingness of government to fund infrastructure through long term low cost government borrowings and instead an relying on private capital to provide infrastructure has skewed development towards speculative housing, freeways and retail development, while critical infrastructure such as public transport, water reticulation and low cost housing have been ignored.

20. While zoning is intended to define land use and limit development, it has become the speculative starting point for land values. Over time, zonings are manipulated and changed to benefit developers, while eroding the quality of local communities. Considerations such as amenity, privacy, overlooking neighbours, site coverage, and cultural heritage, which are vital in determining the merits of a plan , are inadequately accounted for or ignored.

Goals

The Greens NSW will work towards:

21. Creating for all people built environments that:

• 21.1 Protect and nurture the natural environment, while providing for the daily and lifetime needs of residents;
  

• 21.2 Are planned for the benefit of all;
  

• 21.3 Are based upon the provision of publicly owned services (such as transport and health) and spaces (such as parkland and waterways);
  

• 21.4 Provide key infrastructure and services to all residents in an equitable and timely manner; and
  

• 21.5 Minimise the use of water, energy and materials, and encourage sustainable methods of producing, using and disposing of all goods and services;
  

22. Creating communities that:

• 22.1 Have equitable access to employment and service centres, public transport, educational, health and recreation facilities, and natural open space;
  

• 22.2 Allow the safe and enjoyable use of public spaces, including parks, waterways and streets; and
  

• 22.3 Are safe and secure, encouraging social interaction and a sense of community, promoting community ownership and involvement and providing space for young people to recreate and socialise including intergenerational social interaction opportunities and extended families.
  

Detail

Rights, Roles and Responsibilities

The Greens NSW will work to:
23. Shift the emphasis in land ownership from a belief that development is a right to a belief that it is a privilege;

24. Recognise that the community is vital to the planning process, and owns a valid interest in the streetscape, in access to open sky and natural light in public places and in the maintenance of local employment opportunities;

25. Create a fairer planning system, which places the public interest ahead of the profits of private developers, allows for the community to have input at each stage and removes opportunities for inappropriate development and corruption;

26. Reinforce the Precautionary Principle, in which any reasonable level of uncertainty about adverse impacts of a development application would translate into a rejection or delay of approval until the uncertainty is resolved;

27. Increase the knowledge and application of environmentally sustainable design principles, such as passive solar design, for urban and rural settlements, and individual buildings;

28. Reform the planning process, to encompass a broader range of priorities, particularly environmental sustainability, community involvement and ownership, social and cultural considerations, and including discouragement of houses of excessive size; and

29. Establish an Independent Planning Commission to conduct arms length assessment of major developments, and to monitor and report annually on the implementation of long term planning strategies.
Reforming the Planning Process

The Greens NSW will work to:

30. Reform the planning process to:

• 30.1 Ensure proposals to alter zoning to allow more intensive development are not approved without comprehensive community consultation and approval;
  

• 30.2 Ensure these re-zonings do not occur where they will impact adversely on biodiversity, energy or transport efficiency, view corridors from public open space, built heritage, or water quality for wetlands, estuaries, creeks and other watercourses;
  

• 30.3 Ensure prescriptive controls contained in all Environmental Planning Instruments (“EPIs”), i.e. Local Environment Plans (“LEPs”), Development Control Plans (“DCPs”), State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) and Regional Environment Plans (“REPs”), including maximum height, maximum building floor space, minimum setbacks to site boundaries, minimum allocations of open space but excluding minimum car parking provision are enforced without exception; and
  

• 30.4 Repeal SEPP No. 1, which permits such flexibility;
  

31. Advocate that prescriptive controls should not be seen as "by-right" outcomes that can be achieved in every case but as absolute constraints that can only be achieved in balance with other issues such as impacts on neighbours, public space and sustainability objectives;

32. Revise EPIs to ensure access to quality open space for all residents, e.g. prohibiting medium or high density development in regions where access to public space falls below threshold levels, as measured by hectare open space per thousand people;

33. Ensure developer levies are not used on motorways and major arterial roads;

34. Support a "betterment" tax, payable on sale or disposal, to be levied on windfall gains that accrue to a landholder as a result of a rezoning that increases the development potential of land;

35. Ensure that Ecologically Sustainable Development is the guiding principle that is expressed in the planning process including the preparation of planning instruments; and

36. Require major planning decisions to take account of the greenhouse gas implications (tonnes per annum emitted) as a result of the proposal.

Pre-Development Application Process

The Greens NSW will work to:

37. Revise the pre-development application process to ensure:

• 37.1 In initial planning, when preparing the DA, sufficient land is set aside to provide for public open space, parks, landscaping and stormwater treatment;
  

• 37.2 The optimal location for a stormwater treatment (including constructed wetlands) is earmarked with sufficient land as drainage before the development layout is finalized; and
  

• 37.3 Ensure, where sufficient drainage reserve cannot be provided, because development is on too small a parcel of land, the developer pays a contribution to council for development of a wetland - including purchase of land if necessary - in a suitable location to treat stormwater before entry into the river system. 
  

The Powers of the Minister

The Greens NSW will work to:

38. Oppose legislation to override a Court decision against a development or designed to stop a court decision process e.g. the Collex Waste Transfer Station legislation;

39. Limit the power of the Minister to intervene in the development assessment process to refusal or the imposition of additional conditions of consent; and

40. Oppose the appointment of planning administrators or panels by the Planning Minister to take over the planning and consent powers of local government.

The Built Form - Sustainable Urban Planning
The Greens NSW will work to:

41. Support an approach to planning based on:

• 41.1 Identifying appropriate sites for increased urban density based on criteria that protect existing urban communities, protect quality food producing lands and ecological values, and constrain urban sprawl;
  

• 41.2 Imposing development constraints that ensure high quality public and private spaces within the development and in the surrounding communities, that protect the site's ecological values, that realise the transport benefits of increased densities and that ensure that the development enhances affordability;
  

• 41.3 Ensuring that existing infrastructure capacity supports the increased density and, in cases where it would not, additional capacity is supplied at the expense of the developer;
  

• 41.4 Retaining diverse employment opportunities within easy access of residential centres;
  

• 41.5 Ensuring that built form integrates well with open space and parks;
  

• 41.6 Providing and maintaining essential infrastructure to support and sustain successful communities;
  

• 41.7 Ensuring that private services such as shops and publicly provided services such as transport are within easy reach of all new residential units; and
  

• 41.8 Using public buildings and open spaces to modulate high density built forms.

Transport

The Greens NSW will work to:

42. Support integrated transport and urban planning that:

• 42.1 Focuses on the provision of high quality public transport, cycling and pedestrian options;
  

• 42.2 Strictly limits the provision of private parking in new developments in order to not damage the viability of surface based public transport such as buses; and
  

• 42.3 Maintains high quality corridors for cycling and pedestrian access and for public transport, including light rail where appropriate.

 Publicly Owned Land

The Greens NSW will work to:

43. Recognise that public land is held in trust by governments and councils on behalf of the people of NSW who own it, and oppose all trade-offs of publicly owned land;

44. Where possible, link public open spaces by biodiversity corridors to form a non-motorised transport network with native vegetation at their edges; and

45. Fund this extension of parklands by taxes/ contributions from developers with expenditure co-ordinated according to a long-term comprehensive plan.

Coastal Development

The Greens NSW will work to:

46. Help communities resist development pressures on coastal zones, based on their irreplaceable ecological, cultural and recreational values by:

• 46.1 Protecting high quality food producing lands along the coastal strip through Regional Planning Strategies;
  

• 46.2 Planning policies which contain new settlements and developments to village patterns with generous allocations for non-urban usages between urban forms;
  

• 46.3 Strict enforcement of Regional Planning Strategies and LEPs designed to limit intensity of development and land use along the coast;
  

• 46.4 Exploring state wide planning to alleviate pressure from concentrated development/population hotspots;

• 46.5 Creation of a coastal buffer zone protecting the coast to:
• Constrain development to be behind the coastal dunes;
• Ensure that development does not interfere with coastal access
• Ban all new development on headlands;
• Prohibit land fill in all tidal waters; and
• Ban all new marinas and create controls for the selective closure of existing marinas where damage to the marine and estuarine environments can be established; and
  

• 46.6 Within the coastal zone, and particularly on steep or elevated sites within the view catchment of the coast, enhanced site coverage constraints and height limits that are sensitive to site slopes and to the protection of view corridors.

Sustainable Design principles

The Greens NSW will work to:

47. Ensure all new developments, and alterations and additions to existing buildings, are designed in accordance with sustainable building principles, with regard to consumption and production of energy and water, sourcing of materials, and the minimisation and treatment of wastewater and other products, and with mandatory guidelines set where appropriate.

Follow this link for The Greens NSW Planning and Infrastructure Policy Summary.