Recent calls by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and business groups for more apartments on Parramatta Road as a solution to the housing crisis are a smart idea, but almost impossible to realise.
At first, it seems an ideal place for more residents. It’s in the city’s “missing middle” where TOD, or Transport-Oriented Developments, can take advantage of existing public transport, infrastructure and services. Inner West Council has made the eastern part more attractive to smaller developers by zoning it as “shop-top housing”.
Housing of the future on Parramatta Road? Count the hurdles.Credit: Ben Rushton
But new housing developments are thwarted at every turn as the combination of design challenges, council demands and builders’ restrictions create almost insurmountable obstacles.
Two recent projects I designed and managed show how devilishly hard building infill housing can be. Both are less than a kilometre from where Albo grew up, but are a million miles from the halcyon days when good social housing – the kind he called home – was well supported and easy to achieve.
Parramatta Rd is actually unattractive for housing: the existing buildings are old and dilapidated, the thoroughfare is busy and noisy (only marginally improved with West Connex), there’s no greenery, there are punitive parking restrictions, and one side of the road faces only south, with no sun. Designing apartments that will attract people is the first stumbling block.
There are two options for shop-top housing: build large apartments for sale or smaller “micro-units” in boarding houses for rental. The design codes have far more demanding requirements for the former than the latter, requiring large internal and communal areas, private balconies, and high numbers of car-parking spaces, among myriad restrictive controls that can’t be easily achieved on a busy road.
Hence, my clients for these two sites, in Stanmore and Annandale, opted for micro-units. However, both wanted high design quality to compensate for the location. Going against a long tradition of turning quick profits, they wanted to hold long-term investments.
Approval for the designs ran into the brick wall that is the local council. Despite both schemes being fully compliant, its computers were seemingly set to say no as a first response, followed by notoriously long delays.
Nice idea, Albo, but populating Parramatta Road will be a nightmare
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01.03.2024
Recent calls by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and business groups for more apartments on Parramatta Road as a solution to the housing crisis are a smart idea, but almost impossible to realise.
At first, it seems an ideal place for more residents. It’s in the city’s “missing middle” where TOD, or Transport-Oriented Developments, can take advantage of existing public transport, infrastructure and services. Inner West Council has made the eastern part more attractive to smaller developers by zoning it as “shop-top housing”.
Housing of the future on Parramatta........
© The Sydney Morning Herald
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