Sydney on track to become a premier global city

Article by Gary White, Chief Planner

Sydney of all cities in Australia has the potential to make a legitimate claim as tracking towards Australia’s premier global city. This has not come from its planning system, which continues to be amongst the most challenged in Australia. It will continue materialise on the back of the most aggressive infrastructure led city shaping programme seen in any Australian city over the last 40 years.

An aerial view of Sydney Harbour showcasing the iconic Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The shaping infrastructure provided over the last 10 years presents new opportunities around “Transit Orientated Development” (TOD), in contrast to simple “Car Oriented Development” (COD). It is a once in a city lifetime undertaking to complement the residential policy direction clearly articulated by the NSW state government, to use the infrastructure for a new land use story for metropolitan Sydney.

Shaping infrastructure which includes new metro rail and light rail in Sydney’s CBD and inner suburban ring, plus a new international Airport in Western Sydney is of a scale beyond anything in other Australian metros such as Melbourne and Southeast Queensland. Melbourne is challenged by the debate (and the budget situation) on how and where it should be placing its shaping infrastructure. It is 2024 and it still hasn’t addressed the accepted logic of rail connecting your capital city CBD to your key airport.  

Southeast Queensland’s necessary shaping infrastructure story is a decade behind, despite positives like Cross-River rail, Gold Coast light rail, the recently announced Sunshine Coast railway, and a recent proposition by the Brisbane City Council of a non-tracked tram fabric for Brisbane. This is on the back of a recent regional plan, which is frankly a new version of the status quo, primarily focused on “car orientated development” catchup, despite utilising the knowledge of where development is likely to occur as documented in a succession of regional plans over the last 15 years. The last time a southeast Queensland Regional plan and its infrastructure plan SEQIPP connected meaningfully was back in 2009. Premier David Crisafulli and the new Queensland Government has an opportunity to revisit and update the current strategic plan. Watch this space.  

Having praised Sydney, the challenge will be to translate the NSW governments promotion of density around railway stations into exiting vibrant urban centres. The blunt rezoning of land around train stations and the changes to the status of land, whilst potentially a huge opportunity in the delivery of housing, will not necessarily translate into new quality places. Strategic commentary in the much-awaited Greater Sydney Metropolitan Plan should reference and articulate the intent for TOD locations, as a guide to councils which would enable them to tell their own strategic stories that are responsive to density and the need for improved housing supply. If councils do not respond to the huge investments in infrastructure in their backyards, there should be no surprises that the blunt approach can be used by the state government. Change is without question, but how change occurs can be chosen.

Opportunities need to be taken to address the housing needs of our community, looking outside the box to find and provide meaningful solutions, and where local political success is measured not by the degree that a particular council or self-interest group can stop or dilute innovation, but where success is measured by genuine place making outcomes. The housing crisis has been on the horizon for 20years, however progress towards solutions has been slow.

This government has articulated a planning story intent for housing density, building on the investment by the people of New South Wales and the previous government on shaping infrastructure. Its challenge will be to put in place delivery platforms which match the huge but necessary challenge of rebalancing a car orientated suburban form into a transport orientated urban form across the Metropolitan area. Responsibility will not just lie with councils to meet difficult housing targets and respond to city shaping infrastructure, but capacity needs to be demonstrated within the structure of governments, its departments, and entities. There is frustration that whilst the policy position appears to be in the right direction it is not being translated into meaningful delivery, an attitude of business as usual prevails in the engine room, and the payload is not being matched by delivery capacity or attitude.

It must be said that if opportunities can be taken, and change is both allowed and encouraged to succeed as part of a new strategic direction, it will be an example for suburban car shaped cities around the world to transform back towards a transit shaped urban fabric. Reminiscent of that prior to the Second World War, shaped by tram systems and the like, but subsequently pushed aside by the suburban car orientated growth model which accelerated out from the 50s, particularly in Australia, Canada and United States. A bipartisan planning success story has uniquely evolved in Sydney, aside from the political blue and red corners, giving itself capacity to prepare itself for its next 20 years. One side of politics biting the bullet to invest in the shaping infrastructure despite the significant opposition, and the other side biting the bullet around appropriate land uses utilising this new transport despite also facing its share of push back. Sydney is a metropolitan city which has the potential to translate, and is deserving of, a new global status on the back of city shaping infrastructure and commitments to new land use in a premier Australian location.

ABOUT GARY WHITE

Gary White is a proven industry leader in strategic and urban planning, with over 40 years national experience. He is acknowledged as a visionary across the public and private sector and has held the two most senior planning positions in Australia as the Chief Planner for the NSW Department of Planning & Environment (2019), and Chief Planner QLD State Government. 

Gary has a comprehensive understanding of all planning facets and the relationship to key market drivers. His extensive knowledge and pragmatic approach to planning and planning systems, regional planning, individual and unique projects enable him to analyse and decipher complex elements of planning and providing a practical and innovative solutions. Gary is very focused on how mega trends, infrastructure investment, development viability can be balanced in a changing world.

In 2018 he was acknowledged as Planner of the Year by the Planning Institute of Australia for his contribution to Strategic planning. Gary is also a past Member of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Management Committee, Central Sydney Planning Committee and Heritage Council of New South Wales.