Planning to Fail … A Short History of Urban Densification in Sydney

We’ve heard about it for decades now.

Sydney has to stop the sprawl, there must be higher densities and we need to redevelop low density areas.  And, this is especially so under the latest Sydney Metropolitan Strategy and as a result of the global climate change.

But, the history of NSW urban planning demonstrates continuous failures by successive state governments and departments to successfully implement their policies and plans to increase densities.

I found this out by reading a short paper by Glen Searle called Sydney’s urban consolidation experience: Power, politics and community. Glen is an Associate Professor in Planning at the University of Queensland and wrote the paper in 2007.  It’s worth reading and can be found in the Resources & Links section of my webpage www.francescoandreone.com.

Some of the interesting things he identifies in the paper include the following –

• Since the first state housing plan (the Cumberland Plan) was introduced in 1948 NSW has always had strategies and targets to increase housing density in the Sydney metropolitan area
• All those targets have never been met
• Our highest level of new medium and high density development occurred in 1988 and 1989
• Local councils and residents have continuously opposed medium and high density
• The most successful high density urban renewal projects (Ultimo-Pyrmont and Green Square) occurred when state government took over development control and approvals
• Future high density development and urban renewal strategies are no more likely to succeed than the past attempts

I was fascinated reading how the same issues we hear today about building more apartments were being said in the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s … the more things change the more they stay the same !

So, it seems that in NSW we’ve always planned for higher densities, residents have always opposed it, local government have crippled policy implementation and we have never met new apartment and town house targets.

But just imagine if that hadn’t occurred and we had all the strata title that was planned and wanted …. how good would that be right now (and in the future) ?


If you agree, then read the proposed new Sydney Metropolitan Strategy and think about what you can do to help make it happen.

Francesco …