Wollondilly Shire Council has welcomed a decision by the NSW Government to tie the delivery of the wastewater and transport infrastructure for Appin with housing growth via a dwelling cap on new greenfield housing within the Appin Precinct of the Greater Macarthur Growth Area.
Late last week, the NSW Government made an amendment to State Planning Policy that means a limit of 2,499 homes can be delivered in the Appin Precinct; noting this can only occur if upgrades are made to associated wastewater and transport infrastructure funded by relevant proponents.
The NSW Planning Secretary will be required to give Council, as the consent authority, surety that adequate arrangements are in place to deliver supporting infrastructure prior to any development consent being issued.
It is understood the implementation of the cap will be managed by the NSW Government across multiple landowners and lodged development applications, making sure that infrastructure delivery arrangements are in place with Sydney Water and Transport for NSW prior to consent.
The cap will be amended over time as sufficient infrastructure becomes available to support additional homes.
“Council has said from day one that a binding infrastructure plan must be in place before housing,’’ says Wollondilly Mayor Matt Gould.
“Whilst there are still a number of important infrastructure issues that need to be resolved for Appin, we welcome this sensible staged approach to housing delivery to ensure the basic enabling infrastructure is in place first.
“Council has been working with the NSW Government and landowners to provide certainty around infrastructure provision for this growing community in a state mandated growth area.
“Our position is that housing can only go ahead where there is the necessary infrastructure in place to support it.
“This dwelling cap is the first step in making sure that any growth in Appin leads to a healthy and vibrant future community with everything they will need in place to support them.
“While we welcome this step, we are still calling for a better framework for infrastructure delivery in greenfield areas, including the release of a full list of the state infrastructure requirements,’’ Mayor Gould said.
“It will also be critical we continue to work on the full infrastructure plan for Appin beyond this cap, to ensure that we can all have certainty over infrastructure delivery as this community grows.”