No sooner had the economic roundtable finished in Canberra than a perfect test case for its housing ambitions appeared in Sydney’s east – at the unused Woollahra railway station site.
Housing was front and centre at the roundtable, where changes sought to speed up supplying 1.2 million houses in the next five years included cutting red tape, speeding up approvals by authorities, challenging the Environment Act and holding off on new requirements in the National Construction Code.
Woollahra station ticks every box for good planning and urban design: housing located on a rail line is perfect Transport Oriented Development, the ideal of the Department of Planning’s new “low and medium rise” rules to increase housing density. But all that upside won’t stop the proposal being thwarted at every turn. The council will most likely take an opposing position on behalf of its residents, the NIMBYest area in Australia.
Tone Wheeler is president of the Australian Architecture Association and the design director of environa studio, which specialises in social and sustainable architecture.
