State to oversee environment protection

By Tim Dick, Urban Affairs Reporter
December 11, 2004

Developers will not have to provide detailed evidence of how the environment and threatened species will be protected under the Carr Government's new plan for almost 80 new suburbs on Sydney's fringe.

Assurances are usually required to be given when the developer applies for council approval, but in the new suburbs the Government will take responsibility for ensuring that endangered species, the environment and heritage are adequately protected.

Leigh Martin, of the Total Environment Centre, said taking control of reports designed to show a proposed development's impact on nature and the environment out of the hands of developers was a good thing.

"By and large, the proponents [now] commission the studies, so there's always questions about how independent [they are]."

He said the State Government's assumption of control would improve their independence, but the cost of producing them should still be met by developers. The Government's plan details where up to 40 per cent of Sydney's new homes will go over the next three decades and is a significant part of its much lauded draft Metropolitan Strategy, a planning blueprint for the metropolitan area.

It was controversially released by the Premier, Bob Carr, and the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Craig Knowles, on Thursday, before a forum with local government on Monday.

The Government played up its environmental credentials, saying more than 12,000 hectares of vegetation would be protected, in return for clearing nearly 3000 hectares for the new villages, and parts of the endangered Cumberland Plain woodland would be safeguarded.

While most of the proposed lots would be the standard size of 450 square metres, those near conservation areas on the edges of the new suburbs would be larger, 20,000-square-metre lots.

The owners of those larger lots will be restricted in what they can build. A proposed "landscape and rural lifestyle zone" will ban blocks of units, forcing owners to have only traditional, detached houses.

"Existing rights to build a house will not be removed," Government papers said. "However, the new zoning will prevent the land being developed more intensively, such as high density housing.

"There will be stricter controls on tree-clearing to protect significant vegetation in these areas. At the same time, there will also be financial and other incentives to encourage land owners to revegetate and retain existing vegetation on their land."

The details of the incentives have not been made public, and Mr Martin said that, while it was good news in theory, the critical question was how the announcements would be performed. "The Metropolitan Strategy, to be successful and to be credible, will need to have some ambitious and rigorous targets that have to be met."

The Government's sustainability commissioner, Peter Newman, said the plans provided "strong protection" of the natural ecosystem, with a "clear delineation" between land for building and that which must be left alone.