Thoughts on Urban Consolidation

[Sydneyfan]

In Sydney, over the last decade there's been a dramatic increase in the proportion of multi-storey dwellings in Sydney particularly in the city and inner-city suburbs as well as at major centres such as Chatswood, Parramatta, and along rail lines. This has caused a fair bit of debate in Sydney since some people agree with the philosophy of urban consolidation building on existing suburban land whilst limiting the encroachment on surrounding farms and bushlands on the suburban fringe, while others believe that urban consolidation is going too far and is negativiely affecting their quality of life with their area becoming more crowded and bringing with it social problems such as crime.

The NSW State Government have been a proponent of urban consolidation since Sydney's population is growing at a steady rate and if urban consolidation isn't applied, further areas of farmland and bushland in the Sydney basin will be swallowed by development, and as areas such as the Central Coast, Newcastle and the Hunter, and the Illawarra will experience growth related to Sydney as well as their own growth and will increasing become commuter suburbs of Sydney.

My local council, Ku-ring-gai, is centred about 15 kilometres north of Sydney, and is largely dominated by low-density housing, large tracts of bushland, and leafy streets, this is largely due to the hilly terrain of the area. My council has been vehemently opposed to any increase in development because they believe that development will be detrimental to Ku-ring-gai's environment. The area is an affluent, well-off part of Sydney where many professionals and businessmen live.

Though I believe that the Government has been sensitive to Ku-ring-gai's environment and that development will only occur in the vicinity of the major highway running up the centre of the muninipality and the rail line. I think that people in my area are being a bit too precious since development will only occur on land with exisiting development and will not affect bushland or have any large negative effect on the surrounding environment. I believe that this is better than losing large tracts of productive farmland, which has occured in Sydney since the start of its development and continues to occur, 60 or more kilometres from the city centre where people have to resort to an hour plus in cars each day to get to work.

Ah well, that's enough of my rant.

What are your thoughts on urban consolidation?

 

[Dippers Donuts]

Interesting comments Sydney Fan. As a fellow sydney resident (living in Balmain) the various parties need to be very careful when planning for the urban future.

Balmain is starting to look like lego land with all the high density apartment blocks being built. It's a joke, there's no parking available anywhere, already narrow streets are being made worse with cars parked on both sides of the road etc.

I am continually badgering my local council to find out what they are up to; after all its these guys that determine whether or not a friggin great high rise gets built next door to you.

As for sydney the urban sprawl will no doubt continue forever westward - sydneys biggest problem is one of geography - hemmed in by the ocean on side and mountains on the other; hence the soaring house prices (thank gawd I had the good sense to buy 12 months ago; couldn't afford to today).

 

[Sydneyfan]

Thanks for that, Dippers

It's good to hear news from a resident of a part of Sydney which already has high-density population coupled with ongoing new developments, and the problems associated with it. Balmain definitely has a lot of development going on at the moment in an area which already has a high-density population with narrow, twisting streets.

It's essential for the urban consolidation to take into consideration the local environment of the area, with sensible development and that there's adequate public transport options for areas being developed so it doesn't just end up making the area more crowded with many cars blocking the local streets. For urban consolidation to work there needs to be ongoing upgrades in the public transport networks at the same time.

I was wondering what's the case in other cities in Australia? Is urban consolidation starting to take hold or is the sprawl of urban development on the cities fringe's still the main form of urban development? I heard that Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane are developing increasing numbers of inner-city developments but not quite to the same degree as Sydney.