CONSTRUCTION of medium and high-density residential buildings seems destined to flourish throughout the prestigious upper North Shore -- the last frontier within the Sydney metropolitan area to be opened for such levels of development.
The NSW Government is enforcing its planning requirements and proposing new regional forums to facilitate denser residential development of the council area, which is officially known as Ku-ring-gai Shire, and other urban areas of the state.
This gives pioneering property developers an opportunity to increase the number of blocks of flats built throughout the shire and perhaps to extend into the shire a boom in high-rise apartment blocks which has been evident in some other municipalities of Sydney in recent years.
High-rise apartment buildings such as have been constructed in recent years on the lower North Shore at centres like North Sydney, St Leonards and Chatswood, mainly along the railway line, are likely to be built sooner or later on the upper North Shore around existing railway stations at centres like Lindfield, Gordon and Turramarru.
Denser development is also likely to occur around the planned West Lindfield railway station when it is built as part of a new railway line from Chatswood to Parramatta.
All this development and building is to be made possible under the state government's policy of urban consolidation, a policy introduced to combat urban sprawl.
Under the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP), developers can apply to the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning to vary such set standards as floor space ratios, height controls and set-backs.
So developers may avoid complying with all the planning and zoning controls of local councils.
The government now is proposing some changes to SEPP to make its implementation more effective.
Some municipal councils have resisted urban consolidation and the elitist council of Ku-ring-gai has been resisting it for years.
Each council must prepare a residential development strategy which allows for denser residential development and which is acceptable to the state, to gain exemption from the state planning policy.
Ku-ring-gai's strategy allows for more medium-density residential develoment along the railway line and the Pacific Highway and around St Ives shopping centre but it does not allow for enough medium-to-high-density and high-rise development in residential zones to satisfy the state.
So the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning, Dr Andrew Refsharge, has rejected the council's strategy and has required the council to consult with developers and ask them where they want higher density development.
Refsharge has required the council to plan for more medium-density development throughout the rest of the shire.
As the council has failed to gain an exemption from SEPP, developers can now ask the state department to require the rezoning of any areas of the shire to allow more blocks of flats and apartments to be built there.
This gives developers more power than they have ever had before and opens the upper North Shore to more development at a faster rate than ever before, hence many builders are anticipating a boom.
NSW Government is introducing new Plan First legislation to establish and empower regional forums of developers, councillors and other stake holders. The state minister is to appoint the members to the small forums.
Each forum will cover many local council areas. The forum for the Northern Sydney Region may include 11 council areas, that is Ku-ring-gai with other councils of the North Shore, Northern Beaches and Northern Suburbs.
Regional organisations of councils in Sydney already meet to discuss planning and development and the Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils includes Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby, Ryde, Hunters Hill, Willoughby, Lane Cove and North Sydney.
This organisation removes some control over planning and development from individual councils and is not accountable to the councils and it thereby has the power to facilitates development and building.
The proposed regional forums are likely to have more control to facilitate more development, not only on the North Shore but throughout the rest of Sydney and other cities in NSW.
The Property Council of Australia endorses the department's Plan First legislation.