September 2024 update

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Upcoming urban renewal plans - short consultation and heritage to be doomed

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With the Council elections out of the way, attention is now turning to the likely exhibition (by Inner West Council) of development plans for the area around Dulwich Hill station.

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As you may recall, earlier this year the NSW Government deferred the implementation of Transport Oriented Development (TOD) planning controls around Dulwich Hill, if Inner West Council delivered its own plans by December 2024. If the council doesn’t do this, the NSW Government controls will come into place on 1 January 2025.

 

This means a council exhibition in October is almost certain.

 

Unfortunately, some of the early news in regard to this process is not good.

 

In August 2024, the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure published (on its website) a new document entitled Guidance to Strategic Planning in TOD precincts. This document purports to instruct councils, such as Inner West Council, on how to do their planning.

 

This document tells councils to over-rule their own Community Participation Plans and exhibit the plans for as little as two weeks.

 

This really is an appalling suggestion which makes a mockery of any concept of community engagement, and will mean many residents are unlikely to be able to have their say.

 

It’s also not clear whether residents will even be notified of the plans being released.

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Separately, the document instructs councils to focus on issues “other” than heritage when preparing their plans, and to not conduct any new heritage or local infrastructure studies, as these issues have "already been considered" when Dulwich Hill was selected for renewal.

 

It says councils should only focus on solar access to new buildings, interface with open space, biodiversity constraints and tree canopy issues. 

 

The document also says that it is okay for developers to lodge applications for new buildings up to nine storeys in existing heritage areas.

 

This would appear to mean that Inner West Council will not be allowed to, for instance, lessen density in a heritage area if it provides housing in another more suitable area. This decision would appear to pointlessly doom Dulwich Hill’s heritage areas to complete renewal for no additional housing gain.

 

It also means the Council's consultation on planning principles in July may have been a waste of time.

 

It is also at odds with the Department of Planning's own work in a TOD precinct in Bankstown, where it decided to spare important character areas from development. It appears there is one rule for the Department's work, and another for Council's work.

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The document also says “local infrastructure capacity” has “already” been assessed in TOD precincts, but there is no record of this assessment being publicly-available.

 

We can only hope that Inner West Council is fighting back against these suggestions to limit its autonomy.

 

See Save Dully’s submission to Inner West Council on local planning principles which addressed the above issues. This submissions makes points such as:

• Dulwich Hill’s heritage areas are an important and valued part of the Dulwich Hill story and should not be removed in entirety, as part of a “clear fell” approach to planning advocated by some.

• It is wholly unclear what future infrastructure will be needed by the population growth proposed in our suburb, and how this will be delivered through the LEP process.

Hercules St industrial site update
 

As many residents may recall, some years ago the NSW Government and Inner West Council rezoned the industrial site at Hercules St to allow development up to 8/9 storeys.

This rezoning came with the proviso that the controls would cease to exist, if a development application had not been lodged and approved by 30 September 2024. No such application has been lodged.

Yesterday, the NSW Government quietly published an amendment to the Inner West Council's planning controls extending the rezoning for a further three years. It is not known whether the council was involved in this decision.

Find out more here. 

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Bankstown Line shutdown

The 130-year-old Bankstown line is shutting down from Monday, for at least 12 months, while the line is converted to a Metro.

Residents will instead be forced to get pink buses, although some new walking and cycling routes have been created.

The Bankstown line, and the Wardell Rd/Dulwich Hill station, has served this community well since 1890. It was just the second suburban railway line to open in Sydney, behind the North Shore line.

Find out more:

Government announcement
Bus information
Walking and cycling route information.