Rezoning

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EXPERT OBSERVER
Since 2000, planning authorities in Australia have overseen a massive rezoning of inner-city industrial land to make way for mixed-use residential development. They claim central industrial space is obsolete in a post-industrial economy driven by knowledge, finance, and real estate. And rezoning offers opportunities to house people near jobs and services, thereby slowing urban sprawl.
While industrial rezonings have contributed to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/density-sprawl-growth-how-australian-cities-have-changed-in-the-last-30-years-65870" target="_blank">densification of Australian cities</a>, they also open the door to real estate speculation and accelerate <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-a-suburbs-turn-for-gentrification-comes-75609" target="_blank">gentrification</a>. This has forced many people to <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-the-buildings-high-density-neighbourhoods-make-life-worse-for-the-poor-82070" target="_blank">move outward</a> in search of affordable shelter.
Rather than fostering walkable <a href="https://www.planmelbourne.vic.gov.au/current-projects/20-minute-neighbourhoods" target="_blank">20-minute neighbourhoods</a>, “<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-06/ghost-shops-haunting-new-developments/11184644" target="_blank">ghost shops</a>” haunt many new mixed-use residential developments. And <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/melbourne-sprawl-50-000-housing-lots-to-be-released-making-way-for-12-new-suburbs-20190214-p50xwf" target="_blank">sprawl continues unabated</a>.
Other problems stem from a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2018.1556633" target="_blank">fundamental misunderstanding of contemporary manufacturing</a>. The loss of central industrial zones displaces a range of <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-our-cities-thriving-creative-precincts-be-saved-from-renewal-83042" target="_blank">specialised manufacturers, creative producers, and small businesses</a>. With them go the quality jobs and vital services they provide. In the process, the diversity of land uses and jobs is reduced in the very places that policymakers want it.
Can urban policy make room for manufacturing and create real diversity and a mix of employment opportunities in our cities?
<h2>Australian manufacturing misunderstood</h2>
Manufacturing employment has declined for decades. This is typically attributed to competition from low-wage countries. In reality, Australian manufacturing is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australian-manufacturing-industry-is-not-dying-its-evolving-csiro-study-69398" target="_blank">changing</a> and is largely distinct from overseas high-volume, low-cost mass production. Urban policy and an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08111146.2018.1556633" target="_blank">outdated vision of manufacturing</a> are as much to blame for the loss of central industrial land.
Today, Australian manufacturing is small, nimble, and specialised. Firms with fewer than 20 people provide <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/8165.0Main+Features1June%202014%20to%20June%202018?OpenDocument" target="_blank">93% of all manufacturing employment</a>. And most firms (74%) have fewer than five employees.
These businesses are not pumping out automobiles or anoraks. They are more likely to engage in small-batch production of high-value-added and design-intensive products.
Much of this production is directly <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187791661730084X" target="_blank">linked to the cultural industries</a>, such as architecture, fashion and home furnishings, and is geared toward local consumption, particularly food and beverages. Combined, these forms of production account for about <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/property-observer" target="_blank">half of all manufacturing employment</a>.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287321/original/file-20190808-144873-sc1pby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""> Carol and Stuart Faulkner of Heartwood Creative Woodworking in Marrickville, Sydney. Paul Jones, used with permission, Author provided
Yes, manufacturing does not provide as many jobs as it once did. Yet it remains crucial to a diversified economy.
Contemporary manufacturing <a href="https://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/rise-urban-manufacturing" target="_blank">thrives among the dense networks and consumer markets found in cities</a>. Or it would, if we did not rezone all of our central city industrial land. The decline in manufacturing employment over the past 20 years coincides with major industrial rezonings.
Despite a net increase in industrial land due to outer suburban expansions, Greater Melbourne <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/property-observer" target="_blank">lost 2,423 hectares</a> (or nearly 19 Hoddle grids) since 2000-01. These were mostly small industrial pockets (less than 5 hectares) in the inner suburbs. The few that remain have no vacancies.
<a href="https://www.colliers.com.au/find_research/industrial/sydney_industrial_land_supply/" target="_blank">Sydney</a> has virtually no inner industrial land left. This follows years of industrial rezonings at the hands of major <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/news-story/the-property-players-cashing-in-on-sydneys-rezoned-land/a76e65f878b8fd2fc17e55f1039b4174" target="_blank">property developers</a>.
<h2>Property speculation designs out mixed-use activity</h2>
Indeed, industrial rezonings have arisen less from an obsolescence of manufacturing than from opportunistic targeting of higher-return land uses. Two-thirds of Melbourne’s industrial land was <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/property-observer" target="_blank">rezoned</a> to promote residential development or other mixed use that does not permit industrial activity.
That leads to an immediate rise in property values and, of course, speculative investment. An infamous example in Victoria is then planning minister Matthew Guy’s <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/report-slams-matthew-guy-on-rezoning-of-fishermans-bend-20151019-gkcyrv" target="_blank">2012 rezoning of 250 hectares</a>) of central Melbourne industrial land at Fishermans Bend for a high-density mixed-use precinct. But this is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/06/made-london-property-speculation-industry-capital" target="_blank">global phenomenon</a>.
Paradoxically, while mixed use is the planner’s holy grail, many new mixed-use projects do not foster the dense and walkable neighbourhoods they seek. Most are simply “shop-top” apartments with nominal ground-floor retail, not a diverse mix of uses. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-06/ghost-shops-haunting-new-developments/11184644" target="_blank">retail vacancies are on the rise</a> – nearly 40% in some suburbs.
While some mixed-use projects include office space, rarely do they incorporate multiple forms of work space. This means they do not support a rich business mix. Nor do they help solve the challenge of affordable housing, because an <a href="https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/more-housing-hasnt-fixed-australias-affordability-crisis-its-time-for-a-national-settlement-strategy/" target="_blank">increase in housing supply does not guarantee lower prices</a>.
For these reasons, zoning out employment land in the central city may not be “the highest and best use”. Even in a post-industrial economy, we need urban industrial zones that provide flexible work spaces, incubate new creative activities, allow for maintenance and repair and, above all, temper market rents for firms that provide quality, essential jobs and services.
<h2>How to renew inner-city industry</h2>
Inner-city industrial land is at capacity. If urban policymakers do not confront the legacy of industrial rezonings, they risk compounding problems in housing, jobs and retail. That, in turn, will further homogenise our cities and worsen inequality.
We can tackle the problem in three ways:
<h3>1. Preserve inner and middle industrial zones</h3>
To support a critical mass of enterprises would require no longer treating industrial lands as an opportunity for speculative housing and mixed-use activity. Tenure security for hundreds of <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-our-cities-thriving-creative-precincts-be-saved-from-renewal-83042">micro-enterprises</a> encourages local entrepreneurialism, in contrast to the part-time, low-wage jobs that generic chains bring to mixed-use projects.
US cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee and Portland have long maintained central “<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/491196" target="_blank">industrial sanctuaries</a>” that prohibit residential development.
<h3>2. Develop alternative mixed-use zoning</h3>
Current mixed-use zoning primarily creates residential development and assumes manufacturing is incompatible. In fact, there are important <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187791661730084X" target="_blank">spatial interdependencies</a> between manufacturing and creative industries.
Melbourne, Portland, San Francisco, and Vancouver have implemented new zoning designations intended to accommodate this mix. This is a positive step, but uptake of measures like the <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/property-observer" target="_blank">Commercial 3 Zone</a> in Melbourne has been slow.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287324/original/file-20190808-144843-na0ib.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""> SFMade’s 150 Hooper Street is a mixed-use project that provides the first new manufacturing space in San Francisco in 20 years. Carl Grodach
<h3>3. Add new inner-city industrial space</h3>
Consumers <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/they-are-wounded-animals-department-stores-fight-for-survival-20190807-p52eus" target="_blank">want direct relationships with makers</a>. Rising land prices and the changing size and scope of manufacturing today means there is potential to add industrial to <a href="https://sfmade.org/blog/the-manufacturing-foundry-at-150-hooper/" target="_blank">commercial</a> and even <a href="https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/strathcona-village-belcourt-residence-vancouver" target="_blank">residential</a> redevelopments, via cross-subsidy incentives. Empty shop-top retail could be carefully retrofitted for creative and small manufacturing, with new building codes that enable alternative low-impact, ground-floor uses.

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/carl-grodach-403324" target="_blank">Carl Grodach</a>, Professor and Director of Urban Planning &amp; Design, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/monash-university-1065" target="_blank">Monash University</a>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chris-gibson-9277" target="_blank">Chris Gibson</a>, Director, UOW Global Challenges Program &amp; Professor of Human Geography, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-wollongong-711" target="_blank">University of Wollongong</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/justin-oconnor-11847" target="_blank">Justin O'Connor</a>, Professor of Cultural Economy, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-australia-1180" target="_blank">University of South Australia</a>
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-fix-the-problems-caused-by-rezoning-inner-city-industrial-land-for-mixed-use-apartments-121566" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Three ways to fix the problems caused by rezoning inner-city industrial land for mixed-use apartments

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EXPERT OBSERVATION
The NSW Labor Party announcement that they will eliminate spot rezoning if elected in March is a misunderstanding of the planning system.
Spot rezoning was introduced because many councils were very slow to update their Local Environmental Plans yet population growth had increased or new infrastructure like metro rail was being built.
Many councils were against new child care centres that competed against their own centres or did not support affordable housing in their area. In these circumstances where councils were stopping social responsible development or where their planning documents were out of date it is necessary to have a review system that has independent assessment.
The Plan for Sydney, A Metropolis of Three Cities, by the Greater Sydney Commission is only a year old and it sets the big picture agenda for where growth should occur. Unfortunately most councils have LEPs that are sometimes decades old. It is essential that planning responds to today’s needs not the past.
Giving councils too much power in the rezoning process creates an environment conducive to corruption. The current District Planning Panels are independent and were set up to keep potentially corrupt councilors out of the process.
Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Glenn Stevens, in a report to the NSW Government raised concern that the planning system was too slow and out of date with current economic circumstances.
The spot rezoning approach allows independent assessment of planning proposals that fit the Greater Sydney Commissions most recent plans but don’t conform to out of date council plans.
As Glenn Stevens highlighted to wait for 5 years for the council plans to catch up is a very inefficient way to keep the economy of housing supply being relevant.
The Labor statement that spot rezoning is about developer deals is totally wrong. It is about being current with planning rather than being out of date. It is also about ensuring that anti -development councils cannot undermine the metropolitan wide approach taken by the Greater Sydney Commission.
Importantly Pre-Gateway reviews of Planning Proposals are undertaken by appointed experts on District Planning Panels that include a local council representative. The checks and balances are there to ensure probity and independent decision making.
It is of concern that the Labor Party is attacking developers for trying to follow the independent GSC plans when local councils are out of date with their own plans.
CHRIS JOHNSON is the Urban Taskforce CEO 
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cjohnson-8xfqfuuCSq

Spot rezoning need to be independently assessed: Chris Johnson

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Much like Parramatta, Liverpool will become another satellite CBD for the Harbour City, having been rezoned by the State's Planning Minister.

Anthony Roberts has officially announced the rezoning of 25 hectares in and around Liverpool that will further entice development to the locality. Already no stranger to high-rise residential development in Liverpool's fringe, the passage of higher density and mixed-use applications for the heart of the suburb will be made all the more easier under the rezoning.

The move comes as both the State Government and Liverpool Council seek to attract additional commercial and residential activity to the expanding hub. Liverpool's core stands to gain bigger developments under the rezoning, but also increased ground floor uses such as cafes, bars, restaurants and retail.

<blockquote>
I am pleased to announce this plan which will transform Liverpool’s commercial areas and unlock the city’s potential as a thriving and well-connected place to live, work and play.

Changes to the Local Environmental Plan (LEP) will open the door for Liverpool to fulfil its potential as the next significant city centre in Sydney. Liverpool’s transformation has the potential to be enjoyed by locals and international visitors, with the city centre being on the doorstep of the future Western Sydney Airport.

The rezoning enables increased building heights for selected key sites and will ensure people have easy access to public transport, the city campuses of both Western Sydney University and University of Wollongong and Liverpool Hospital’s $740 million redevelopment.
<cite>Planning Minister Anthony Roberts</cite>
</blockquote>

The rezoning's positive aspects have been lauded by the Planning Minister, Liverpool City Council Mayor Wendy Waller and Urban Taskforce Australia's Chris Johnson.

Not content with Liverpool's emergence behind Sydney's heart and Parramatta as true Central Business Districts, Chris Johnson insists that rezoning should be applied to other suitable suburban Sydney locations.

<blockquote>
The announcement by NSW Planning Minister, Anthony Roberts, that the Liverpool city centre has been rezoned for mixed-use is a good model for all centres across Sydney, says the Urban Taskforce. The 25 hectare city centre in Liverpool is now planning to house 10,000 new homes and 22,000 new jobs as a result of the change from commercial only zoning to mixed-use zoning.

The Urban Taskforce has been critical of the zoning of strategic centres as outlined in the Greater Sydney Commission’s District Plans that did not support mixed-use zoning but preferred separate zones for housing and for jobs. Most cities in the world are moving away from restrictive single use zoning towards a mixed-use approach that gives incentives to ensure a viable mixture of uses related to market needs.

The Liverpool model is following this approach.

A similar approach to mixed zoning should be considered for city centres like North Sydney, St Leonards, Chatswood, and Parramatta. Each of these city centres needs the vitalisation that comes from people living, working and shopping in an urban centre.
<cite>Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson</cite>
</blockquote>

Liverpool already has a substantial presence in the Urban.com.au Project Database, and this is set to grow once rezoning is ratified. The rezoning is as much about changing the balance of uses within any given development as it is about realising larger developments.

Prime developments come in the form of 277 Bigge Street which was <a href="https://www.urban.com.au/news/mackycorp-lines-up-a-major-liverpool-office-development">recently profiled</a> by Urban.com.au. It involves the construction of a purely commercial tower containing in excess of 27,000 square metres of Gross Floor Area.

Also fresh to Liverpool is an application looking for the realisation of a residential tower at 402 Macquarie Street for developer Kingdom Towers. Spanning 17 levels and designed by GCCV, the applications includes 145 apartments.

To date Liverpool has 31 predominantly residential projects listed within the Urban.com.au Project Database.
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silvermb

Liverpool rezoned and earmarked as becoming Sydney's third largest CBD

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The Police Citizens Youth Club has sold its rezoned Parramatta club.
The <a href="https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/property/12-hassall-street-parramatta-nsw-2150-2012428578" target="_blank">12 Hassall Street</a> holding fetched $33 million when bought by the residential developer Toplace. 
Toplace's current projects include its 3.3-hectare Rosebery Park site. 
It has also acquired the Hills Shire Council $140 million site in Castle Hill which is expected to yield 800 new apartments.
Last May it sold 260 apartments out of the 378 in two towers on Old Northern Road in the Atmosphere development.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

Parramatta on Toplace agenda

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A preference for attached dwellings and council considerations for further rezoning to allow property development in the Adelaide housing market will see attached housing begin to replace the traditional quarter acre block, according to Herron Todd White.
Herron Todd White's September Month in Review noted parts of Campbelltown have been rezoned for medium density housing as well as Seaton, Brompton and Bowden, and suburbs surrounding the airport  are going some type of urban renewal. Many homebuyers, according to HTW, are being priced out of the established residential areas and the options are to move to more affordable areas or to buy a smaller dwellings in an area that is undergoing redevelopment.
"Areas that are probably most suited to attached housing are the middle ring suburbs that have houses that were built duing the 1950s to 1970s but are now in need of either refurbishment or redevelopment," the report noted. 
"The tendency is to now look to fitting two or three dwellings on a site that formerlly accommodated a single residence. Competition for these sites is fierce and that benefits the end buyer as developers are working to thin margins resulting in end value price points being kept reasonable.
"Price points are variable and are dependent on the scale of the development. In some higher density developments land components are very small and prices will be in the order of $250,000 to $350,000. Where as the more traditional two or three dwelling development will result in an end value of an attached dwelling being from $300,000 to $600,000."
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Rezoning

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