Beyond the Edge: Australia's First National Peri-urban Conference La Trobe University October 2013

1. Governance, property rights and
planning in peri-urban areas:
Greater Sydney case study
Peter Williams
Planning and Urban Development Program
Faculty of the Built Environment
University of New South Wales

2. Aims
• This paper seeks to demonstrate that longer
term strategic planning in peri-urban Sydney
has been severely compromised by State
Government decisions.
• The prognosis for rural lands deemed suitable
for urban development in and around the
Sydney Basin remaining in rural use is
doubtful.

3. Structure
• Introduction
• Planning the Sydney Region?
–
–
–
–
Sydney’s metropolitan plans
Growth Centres Commission
Landholder-nominated land releases
Ministerial land deals in the Lower Hunter
• Property rights and planning in peri-urban Sydney
– The Growth Centres’ green zones
– Environment protection zones
• Conclusion

4. Introduction
• In its editorial of 6 October 2006 titled, ‘On top in Pitt Town:
Sartor saves the day’, The Sydney Morning Herald opined:
“Of course, planning policy must continue to seek to preserve
Sydney’s farms and vegetable gardens by releasing other land first.
Ultimately, though, where the choice is between land and lettuce,
Sydney will have to take the land. The lettuce, after all, can grow
somewhere else.”
• This decision is symptomatic of the intersection of governance,
metropolitan planning and property rights issues related to urban
growth management on the fringe of Sydney over the past 10
years.
• A number of State Government decisions and property rights
confrontations have destabilised rigorous strategic land use
planning in NSW.

5. Planning the Sydney Region?

6. Sydney’s Post-War Metropolitan Plans
Plan
Year Made
Duration
1. County of Cumberland Planning Scheme
19481
20 years
2. Sydney Region Outline Plan
1968
20 years
3. Sydney Into Its Third Century
1988
7 years
January 1995
4 years
5. Shaping Our Cities
December 1998
7 years
6. Cities of Cities: A Plan for Sydney’s Future
December 2005
5 years
7. Metropolitan Plan for Sydney 2036
December 2010
3 years
4. Cities for the 21st Century
8. Draft Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031
1
May 20132
The County of Cumberland Planning Scheme was completed in 1948, but not formally adopted until 1951.
The final Metropolitan Strategy for Sydney to 2031 is due for release by the end of 2013.
Source: Compiled by author, 2013
2

7. Sydney’s Growth Centres

8. Metropolitan Planning and
Sydney’s Growth Centres
2005 Metropolitan
Strategy
Sydney’s Growth
Centres will:

9. The former Growth Centres Commission –
statutory framework
• The Growth Centres Commission was a Statutory Body
operating under the Growth Centres (Development
Corporations) Act 1974. ‘Merged’ with DoP, October 2008.
• This Act was the principal legislation under which the
Commission operated
• The Commission operated under a Board of members which
reports directly to the Minister for Planning
• State Environmental Planning Policy (Sydney Region Growth
Centres) 2006, gazetted 28 July 2006, is the legal instrument
that establishes the planning rules and objectives for the
Growth Centres. Approval authorities, such as Local Councils,
must apply this policy when making planning decisions about
land within the Growth Centres

10. Role of Sydney’s Growth Centres
Sydney’s Growth Centres charter is to:
• coordinate land releases in the Growth Centres in
North West and South West Sydney;
• coordinate Precinct Planning to effect rezoning of the
released land;
• coordinate the timely provision of infrastructure
required for the rezoned land; and
• collect a contribution as part of the development
process to help fund that infrastructure.

11. Role of Sydney’s Growth Centres
• The task over 30 years:
– to facilitate as much land to market as quickly as possible,
by coordinating planning and infrastructure.
– To provide capacity for 181,000 dwellings, land for
employment and $7.5 billion in regional infrastructure to
support up to half a million additional residents in Sydney.
– Over 12,300 developable hectares; over 2,500 hectares for
employment
• Achieved by:
– Linking planning and infrastructure provision
– reduction of time to rezone land from seven to 10 years to
two to three years
– A precinct planning approach

12. Facilitation of land planning and release
• Reduction of time to rezone land from seven to 10 years to two to
three years through adopting a precinct planning approach.
• Approval and adoption of Draft Conservation Plan for the Growth
Centres which provides biodiversity certification throughout the
Growth Centres
• Agreed protocols for dealing with other concurrences at Precinct level
instead of Development Application (DA) level, so reducing
development times
• Formulation of the Growth Centres Development Code
• Implementation of the Precinct Acceleration Protocol
YET:
• Decision to abolish the GGC appears to have been a highly political one
– inter-factional power struggles; lobbying by unfavourably disposed
developers; support by former Planning Minister for GCC retention

13. Managing growth?
Landholder-nominated land releases
• Developer pressure following release of City of Cities for
greenfield releases outside the Growth Centres (e.g.
Macarthur South/Appin) – contrary to sustainability
criteria.
• August 2011: Planning Minister calls for expressions of
interest from landowners seeking to develop their land for
housing.
• In response to invitation for landowner-nominated land
releases, 43 sites submitted for consideration, of which 29
were selected for further evaluation: rezoning of seven of
these commenced and 13 to be investigated in upcoming
local or regional strategies.

14. Ministerial land deals in the Lower Hunter
• ‘Unplanned’ land rezonings/development approval and land
dedication agreements
• In finalising the Lower Hunter Regional Strategy the NSW Government
reached agreement with four major landholders for the dedication of
over 12,000 hectares of land in return for the recognition of additional
development potential over 3280 hectares.
• The details of the negotiated outcomes were set out in a series of
Memoranda of Understanding between the NSW Government and
the four landholders/developers
• Land and Environment Court ‘land bribe’ finding against the Minister
for Planning
(Gwandalan Summerland Point Action Group Inc v Minister for
Planning [2009] NSWLEC 140)

15. Department of Planning
“documents show that four major
landowners in the area lobbied to
have their land included in the
Lower Hunter Regional Strategy.”
- “Sartor overrides conservation
advice”, SMH, 19 March 2007

16. Property rights and planning in
peri-urban Sydney
Property
rights
Housing
supply

17. The Growth Centres’ green zones
• Abandonment of the green zones or areas – formally
described as Landscape and Rural Lifestyle Zone (LRLZ) under
the 2005 Sydney Metropolitan Strategy
• On 3 November 2005, the NSW Minister for Planning
announced the scrapping of two proposed ‘green zones’ in
the south-west and north-west urban growth centres (that is,
new urban release areas) of Sydney.
• This ‘green overlay’, designed to preserve existing non-urban
land for aesthetic, biodiversity conservation, recreation and
agricultural purposes, covered 8,400 hectares in the land
release areas, and a further 14,000 hectares outside the
growth centres boundary.

18. North West Growth Centre SEPP Map

19. South West Growth Centre SEPP Map

20. The demise of Sydney’s new urban release area
‘green zones’
• The role property rights played was admitted by the Minister
in an earlier media release when he announced a review of
the LRLZ and stated that “the green zones were never
intended to change people’s existing land use rights.” (5/9/05)
• Recognition of these implications was acknowledged in the
Sydney Morning Herald the next day when it reported:
Developers and groups representing thousands of aggrieved
landholders yesterday applauded the State Government’s decision to
walk away from a green zoning proposal that had denied property
owners the right to cash in on future housing estates. (10/9/05)

21. Environment Protection Zones and Down-zoning
• Four new ‘environment protection’ zones in NSW - local councils warned by
DoP to maintain wider designation of permissible land uses due to the
potential to attract compensation through compulsory acquisition for injurious
affection through down-zoning
“The range of uses proposed to be permitted in the E zones is a consideration for council in
consultation with the Department of Planning. In determining uses, council should be aware that the
range of uses should not be drawn too restrictively as they may, depending on circumstances,
invoke the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act 1991 and the need for the Minister to
designate a relevant acquiring authority.
Unless a relevant acquisition authority has been nominated and that authority has agreed to the
proposed acquisition, council should ensure, wherever possible, that the range of proposed land
uses assists in retaining the land in private ownership.”
• Advice appears to be targeted specifically to proposed E2 Environmental
Conservation and E3 Environmental Management zones.
• A major extension of the policy presumption and legal requirement that
compensation is only payable in situations where land is identified and reserved
in a statutory planning instrument for future public purpose, and not for mere
‘injurious affection’.

22. Conclusion
• The recent history of metro planning for Sydney,
particularly as it affects peri-urban areas, has been
racked by short-term ad hoc decisions governed by
political expediency.
• Long term strategic planning for Sydney has been
marred by the preoccupation of successive State
Governments with electoral cycles, urban land
release decisions that are deferential to developer
and landholder interests, and planning, land use and
zoning policy that is subservient to legally unfounded
but politically powerful property rights influences.