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Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

P O Box K606
Haymarket NSW 1240
28 February 2022


Ms Paulinla Wythes
Director, Planning Legislative Reform
Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Locked Bag 5022
Parramatta NSW 2124
Submitted via website

Planning Reform Action Plan

Submission on rezonings

WHO WE ARE

Action for Public Transport (NSW) Inc. ("APTNSW") is a transport advocacy group which has been active in Sydney since 1974. We promote the interests of beneficiaries of public transport - passengers and the wider community alike.

REZONINGS

This submission is largely based on the information in the discussion paper A new approach to rezonings, dated December 2021.

SUBMISSION

We submit that planning as practised in NSW is not something that can be sped-up to an extent where details are overlooked. Many things need to be and are considered in preparing LEPs, including roads, public transport, shopping facilities, health facilities, power supply, water supply, schools ...

The present proposals seek to bypass all that work, typically on the request of a developer who has an obvious interest in getting a development site upzoned. The effect on the whole LEP of rezoning a small part of it, perhaps a hectare or so, may be limited. However, the upzoning might then be taken as a precedent for other properties nearby leading to further rezonings happening. Soon the assumptions underlying the LEP won't apply. When that happens, there is likely to be excessive demand for one or more resources, destroying precisely what planning seeks to achieve.

CONCLUSION

For the reasons above, we would object to the proposed changes.
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