Wollondilly Shire Council is calling on the NSW Government to honour its infrastructure commitments and prioritise the needs of the state-led Wilton Growth Area.
The call from council follows the announcement of rezoning for the Wilton Town Centre last week.
The Wilton Town Centre is a crucial milestone for the delivery of services and local employment for Wilton and for the broader Wollondilly Shire, with an estimated 3000 permanent jobs expected to be created. (Above is a computer generated image of what it will look like on completion.)
The rezoning will allow for 1600 new homes, land for a new public school, open space including sports fields, protection of 37 hectares of environmentally sensitive land, as well as improved roads and public transport infrastructure.
“Wollondilly Shire Council acknowledges the importance of rezoning the town centre to support this fast growing new community,’’ says Mayor Matt Gould.
“However, once again we are continuing to see the lack of a clear plan for how and when critical infrastructure such as water and sewerage will be delivered across the Wilton Growth Area.
“Wilton is here now. It is already being developed and houses are being constructed, so we need the Town Centre to service the houses that are going up, but we also need certainty that critical infrastructure will provided in a timely manner,’’ he said.
“Council is continuing to call upon the State Government to make sure it honours its commitments and prioritises Wilton as the primary growth area for Wollondilly.
“We are also calling on the State Government to follow through with the funding and delivery of commitments for education, health, transport and the other essential infrastructure needed to support the Wilton Town Centre.
“Council will continue to work with the developer to plan and create an exemplar Town Centre, that is supported with the right investment from both the developer and the State Government.”
The Department of Planning and Environment has advised that new controls include two provisions to offer the necessary safeguards that will ensure that development cannot be approved until arrangements for infrastructure are in place.
While there are infrastructure issues outstanding, the developer has written to the department committing that it will not lodge DAs and will continue working with the department and council on these infrastructure matters.
With the profits the developers are getting out of selling small lots their should be no reason that they are not forced to pay for infrastructure.
One major publicly listed developer reported to the ASX that they had sold some 5900 lots and made over $2.9 billion profit and they were sitting on a land bank of enough approved residential land to cover them for 12 years supply at boom sales rates but the land won’t be put on the market until price demand forces up the price