Planning & Development - Policy | Sustainable Australia Party

Related policies

Yes to SIMBY

SAP rejects the YIMBY (yes to anything) and NIMBY (no to anything) extremes:

'Yes to SIMBY' means no to OVER-development.*

"The Green Bans illustrate how, rather than automatically acceding to whatever a developer might propose, opposition and bargaining can win better social and environmental outcomes... Yet as Australian governments embark on another round of projects with harmful impacts on diverse working-class and low-income communities, there is an imperative to define and fight for alternative possibilities that put people before profit. Rather than an offering a reflexive ‘yes’ to the redevelopment of public housing estates, to up-zoning around new metro stations without protection for local low-income households... we need to think strategically and creatively about where and how we can win an urban future of decent, secure and affordable housing for all."

Policy Objective

Achieve a transparent, democratic, corruption-free and environmentally sustainable town and urban planning system that will stop over-development including sprawl, while properly protecting our natural and built heritage, farmland, backyards and local amenity.

"The new [sprawling] suburbs mostly lie beyond the suburban rail network, and many worry proper government investment will only follow years after residents move in, as has occurred in other estates. Adjacent suburbs already suffer from significant road and rail congestion." The Mandarin

"The assumption that high-density is environmentally superior seems to be based on intuition as no proof is provided to support this claim. Rather, considerable evidence is emerging that this is not the case." New Geography

“There is global concern about narrowing opportunities to influence where people live, to influence their street, their neighbourhood, their city. Those narrowing opportunities are a source of frustration for local residents.” Westender

Policy Actions (Federal & State)

To support this objective, Sustainable Australia Party will:

  • Return real planning powers to local communities through proper community engagement, including through statistically representative local Council processes
  • Impose a moratorium on sprawl

But people moving into those areas say it takes more than a bunch of rapidly constructed houses to create a community. “So here’s what’s missing,” said Angela Van Dyke of the Riverstone Neighbourhood Centre and Community Aid Service. “Everything. Public education. Public transport. Good urban design. Livability.” SMH

  • Favour human-scale gentle medium-density infill development (typically 2-6 storeys) over high-rise
  • Ensure proportionate new local infrastructure and services are delivered before or with increased local housing density and population including schools, hospitals, transport, childcare, aged care, libraries, green and recreational space, etc

A prime block of public land [next to an “already overstretched, overcrowded" Royal North Shore Hospital] with approval to build a 62-storey apartment tower overshadowing one of Sydney’s largest hospitals has been put up for sale by the NSW government despite fierce opposition from residents, health workers and the hospital’s own board... the community had consistently campaigned for the land to be used to redevelop the hospital... SMH

Parents and students at Orange Grove Public School in Lilyfield are fighting to keep grassland for children to use for outdoor play [to protect the space from yet another school building due to overcrowding caused by local are over-development and the failure to provide a new school]. CityHub

"Australia’s most significant budgetary risks lie with the indebted state governments, which are primarily responsible for the infrastructure and services required by growing populations... The states and territories have become increasingly reliant on debt to finance infrastructure projects, and their combined net debt is forecast to reach $523 billion by the end of this decade—a tenfold increase from pre-­pandemic levels... Rising state and territory debt also threatens the federal government’s sovereign AAA credit rating, since the commonwealth would likely be required to bail out any state that became insolvent." MacroBusiness

  • Remove caps on developer infrastructure charges and give local and state governments the flexibility to charge developers the real cost of infrastructure delivery for new housing
  • Strengthen and properly enforce planning regulations for building heights, setbacks and floor space ratios (intensity of development on a parcel of land) to protect local amenity and environments including tree canopies, biodiversity, character, heritage, views, acoustic and visual privacy, and solar access (sunlight)
  • Protect live music and arts venues from any adjacent build-up of housing and property developments (also see The Arts policy)
  • Penalise developers that submit planning proposals and development applications outside of local planning guidelines including height limits
  • Capture for the public any rezoning land value gains from planning, rather than gifting them to private sector developers as unearned profits. This would include:
    • Introducing an ACT-style 75% developer 'rezoning / betterment tax' in all states on the total land value gain (between current zoning use and the new approved use) received from favourable land re-zonings. The tax would be applicable only at the time of a new development approval. This tax reflects the fact that the value of the new property rights allowing higher value developments is created by the community through the political process(2)
  • Reject the myth that high-rise density has little or no sprawling ecological footprint (including carbon footprint), or is preferable to ending Australia’s rapid population growth(1)
  • Avoid habitats of all threatened, vulnerable and endangered native species
  • Ban new residential development or infill in flood-prone areas
  • Ensure that planning systems mitigate and adapt to climate change
  • Ensure that new and existing homes and associated landscapes adapt to the latest innovations in thermal and water efficiency and ecological design, including north facing, effective insulation, solar panels and water tanks
  • Ensure that planning systems include consideration of cumulative impacts of developments
  • Protect good condition buildings and their embedded energy and resources from destruction, by prioritising adaptive re-use, renovation and retro-fitting over demolish and rebuild. This can be through a combination of tax concessions for re-use, renovation and retro-fitting, and environmental levies for premature demolition
  • Impose a moratorium on planning rezoning for higher intensity uses that are not in the public interest, such as from rural conservation to farming, or farming to residential

"Up to 60 per cent of farmland in western Sydney has been lost in the past decade, largely swallowed by development." 

    • Empower representative local government area citizen juries (i.e. local community panels) to determine contentious projects, including those proposed outside of the scope of the local area plan such as 'State-significant projects', to ensure any trade-offs are reflective of community desires. Projects would be elevated to a 'citizen jury' level by a designated number of public submissions, as per the current planning system
    • Legislate to ensure that local planning policies and decisions cannot be overturned by State Government-appointed 'independent' planning panels, government departments, tribunals, or ministers

"Perceptions that the appointees themselves are individuals who are first and foremost loyal to the developer cause, and will forever be sympathetic to industry over communities in applying discretion, has added fuel to the fire of community opposition to developments." WA Today

"These boards are appointed from well-established business networks and mates’ clubs. There is little about these appointments that points to a commitment to and having a background in this city’s urban planning or heritage." City News 

"That lemon-scented gum is expected to be cut down to make way for townhouses..."

  • Ban further foreign ownership (also see Affordable Housing policy)
  • Properly assess the risks of high-rise density in relation to the health and wellbeing of residents, including loneliness, the spreading of disease, etc
  • Preserve, rehabilitate or plant corridors of biodiversity in new developments, in accordance with fire regulations, to both preserve wildlife habitat and provide recreational opportunities for local residents
  • Replace private building certifiers (or equivalent in each state/territory such as building surveyors) with local government-employed public certifiers
  • Slow population growth then stabilise Australia’s population size as soon as practicable (also see Population & Immigration policy)

"We can stabilise our population and take this demand for housing pressure off immediately...It is simply a federal government policy decision." Redland City Bulletin

*What is 'over-development'?

How can we define 'over-development' in a democracy? At SAP we would say over-development occurs under any of the following circumstances:

  1. Where the level of housing or other development exceeds the capacity of that community's or region's infrastructure and services to cope with that growth (e.g. local schools, sporting and recreational spaces, roads and transport, hospitals, etc assets are generally over capacity).
  2. Where the local natural environment (including tree canopies and biodiversity) is being degraded by housing or other development.
  3. Where excessive housing or other development is diminishing the local community's amenity and quality of life, including for reasons listed under 1 and 2. This would be determined through democratic and representative community engagement, including representative citizen juries.

Footnotes:

  1. Both sprawl and densification have large environmental footprints and can be considered over-development.
  2. This policy has been successfully functioning in the ACT since 1971.