Sutherland Shire Council will ask to be excluded from a new code that will make it easier to build dual occupancies, terraces and manor houses in low density residential areas.
The new state government rules for so-called “missing middle” housing are due to start on July 6.
However, Planning Minister, Anthony Roberts, said on May 17 he would consider suspending the code for any council that applied.
His statement followed a decision to suspend the code for the Ryde and Canterbury-Bankstown council areas.
Sutherland Shire Council, at its meeting on Monday night, unanimously voted to apply urgently for an exemption.
The new code will hit low density residential areas by allowing dual occupancies, manor houses and terraces as complying development – not requiring council approval if they meet standard government building specifications.
The new code will apply only to areas where medium density development is already permitted under an LEP.
The council decision coincided with the release of figures showing the shire will have a bigger percentage increase in the number of new homes over the next five years than any other Sydney council.
The number of new dwellings in the next five years will rise by 168 per cent compared with the number built between July, 2012 and June, 2017.
Council’s planning director told the meeting the reason for the big increase was that over the last five years “very little” was built in the shire.
He said during the next five years, it was projected 7500 new dwellings would be approved, of which about 5,500 to 6000 would actually be built.
Cr Steve Simpson who moved that the council seek an exemption from the new medium density code, said the shire was well over the state government target for new housing..
“The LEP projected ‘x’ number of dwellings and we thought it would last indefinitely, but whatever the reason – finances, increase in population – we have exceeded the number we need to build.
“We never envisaged the take-up would be so great, that so much money would flow into building in the shire from outside.”
Cr Simpson said residents were “sick of the overdevelopment, lack of infrastructure, loss of amenity, the traffic and parking”.
“Our roads are full and our trains are overflowing.”
Cr Diedree Steinwall described the new medium density housing rules as “draconian”.
“This will affect our quiet streets that are miles from the [train] stations, by allowing two storey dual occupancies and three to four houses in manor houses without [neighbours] having any right to object or even to see the DA,” she said.
“They will be ticked off by a private certifier.”
Former mayor Kent Johns, the principal architect of the 2015 LEP, said it was “an opportunity to hit ‘pause’ to see if there is an issue that needs to be addressed”.
Cr Johns said the 2015 LEP was a ‘legitimate” strategy “to put long-term growth around train train stations and centres, and not to put the burden on outer areas”
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