Researchers from the University of Sydney have examined the NSW government’s strategy for Greater Sydney and found a number flaws in several policy areas.
The NSW government introduced its “A Metropolis of Three Cities” plan for the Greater Sydney region, to manage growth and change from an environmental, social and economic perspective.
The 40-year proposes to reshape Greater Sydney by dividing it into three centres: the Eastern Harbour City at the CBD, the Central River City at Parramatta and the Western Parkland City at to be created around the proposed Western Sydney Airport.
These distinct but connected cities will be structured around strategies for infrastructure, liveability, productivity and sustainability, and will build on the principle that residents will live within 30 minutes of their jobs, schools, health facilities and other services.
An analysis of the strategy, conducted by the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, has found several “flaws” that could prevent its desired outcomes.
Co-authored by associate professor in planning Glen Searle, “Flawed Vision? Sydney’s Three Cities Metropolitan Strategy” finds conflict within the approach under the areas of climate mitigation, housing and jobs creation.
The strategy fails to address the climate crisis in any substantive matter, as any carbon reductions through high-density development around stations are countered by the continuation of motorway projects.
Western Sydney is also the hottest area of the Sydney Basin, and according to Searle, the strategy does not sufficiently consider the possibility of urban expansion of cooler areas such as Dural or the Central Coast in lieu of the region.
The paper also suggests there has been little attempt to tackle the housing affordability crisis in the strategy. “The power of the housing development industry has caused the strategy to adopt a minimalist requirement for developers to include affordable housing,” it reads.
“This exacerbates a lack of affordable housing policies elsewhere by the state government and a similar lack at the federal government level.”
Lastly, the strategy’s proposals for job creation are centred around key parts of the knowledge economy, including universities, hospitals and the Western Sydney Airport. However, according to the paper, the strategy is unlikely to shift the imbalance in knowledge jobs between eastern and western Sydney.
“In addition, the rosy forecasts of jobs created by the second airport overstate the traffic potential of the new airport,” the paper read. “To the extent that new knowledge jobs are created, their higher salaries will put more pressure on housing prices and so increase affordability problems for supporting service workers, making compensatory measures to increase affordable housing supply more urgent.”
Overall, Searle said the Three Cities strategy is a “positive step” for Sydney, marking a fresh departure from recent strategies, despite the complications outlined above. He concludes, “a bold but arguably flawed vision is to be welcomed for broadening the discourse about options for Sydney’s future.”
Click here to read the full paper.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
