The deluge was no deterrent for the hundreds of residents who showed up – dressed in raincoats and carrying umbrellas – to protest against a Sydney council’s plan to rezone and build 31,000 new homes in the inner west.
Following an hour-long rally outside the chambers on Monday night, protesters filled Ashfield Civic Centre waving placards and repeatedly interjecting, leading Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne to demand silence so all 80 speakers at the four-hour-long forum could be heard.
Protesters demonstrate outside Ashfield Civic Centre, where a public forum on the council’s Fairer Futures housing plan was held.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
Tensions between councillors and the irate crowd reached boiling point at the fiery community meeting over the council’s bespoke plan to boost housing supply and build the homes within 15 years, described by Byrne as the “most important policy” the council will oversee in its term.
Dubbed the Fairer Future Plan, the scheme proposes taller buildings of mostly six to 11 storeys clustered around Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Croydon and Ashfield train stations, as well as light rail stops and shopping strips in a bid to protect heritage precincts and more evenly distribute higher-density housing.
It is an alternative approach to the state government’s transport oriented development (TOD) scheme which rezones land within 400 metres of 37 railway stations across Sydney to allow for six- or seven-storey unit blocks.
“It is fairer. It’s fairer for developers, but it’s not fairer for the community,” Hall Greenland, a former NSW Greens convener and former Leichhardt councillor said at the rally. “Housing has got to stop being a commodity that landlords, big corporations, builders and developers exploit.”
Hall Greenland speaks at the rally against the scheme, which proposes taller buildings of mostly six to 11 storeys clustered around Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Croydon and Ashfield train stations.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
Under the plan, 2 per cent of any residential development greater than 2000 square metres will be dedicated to affordable housing, which Greenland said was far from enough.
Dulwich Hill resident Andrew Harvey said: “We don’t understand why questioning the process has us labelled as NIMBYs – we don’t understand how suburbs like Dulwich Hill can be asked to increase housing through high-rise apartments without any additional green space or infrastructure.”
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