Submissions and Reports
UDIA NSW is in constant communication with their members, key industry stakeholders and the NSW government/Department of Planning. Please click on the relevant links below for the work that UDIA NSW undertakes on behalf of its members and the urban development industry.
For past reports & submissions login to member resources
Planning ACT REVIEW
In September 2012, UDIA NSW released its submission to the NSW Government, 'Making It Happen' - UDIA NSW Response to the Planning Green Paper.
The Green Paper shows the Government is heading in the right direction by strengthening the role of strategic planning for future growth. The paper contains a raft of positive recommendations to ensure the success of the future system.
However, we have identified key areas where there is insufficient detail, internal contradictions, and absence of solutions.
To address these issues, UDIA NSW undertook the following hallmark research projects to assist in proposing initiatives that fill in the gaps in the Green Paper:
- We have engaged leading market research firm Crosby Textor to conduct focus groups in inner Sydney and outer south west Sydney to advise on community attitudes towards growth, development, infrastructure provision, and community engagement in the current and future NSW planning system;
- We have engaged leading member developers to test the principles of the Green Paper against real-life examples of different developments, to establish the practicality and viability of the paper’s recommendations; and
- We have brought together the ideas of leading developers and financiers to create a simple, sustainable and affordable system for financing local and State infrastructure.
More than 250 of the industry’s leading developers and practitioners have been directly involved in the preparation of UDIA NSW’s response to the Green Paper. The paper is arranged in four sections that we see are vital to the success of the new
system.
They are:
1. Making plans
2. A new way of engaging
3. Infrastructure funding
4. Delivering a new planning system
Download UDIA NSW response to the Planning Green Paper
Strata Scheme Law Review
In December 2011, the New South Wales Government announced the review of the State’s strata and community title laws, with a view to commencing the review in 2012. As part of the initial consultation process, the Government set up a forum where owners and occupiers of strata developments as well as industry stakeholders could post their concerns and potential reforms.
UDIA NSW believes new strata scheme laws should be governed by some core principles. These include that all newly-created strata schemes allow those schemes to be dissolved with a majority vote with a threshold that represents the collective will of the owners. Existing schemes should be allowed to “opt in” to the new laws, via a majority vote of strata owners. Protections for dissenters must be enshrined in law to ensure the scheme dissolution process is carried to the letter and that there are rights of appeal to an independent authority on issues such as fair and reasonable compensation.
Special Infrastructure Contribution Submission
UDIA NSW has made its submission to the Special Infrastructure Contribution (SIC) Review. The submission asks the State Government to commit to the creation of a permanent funding source that can adequately resource the rising cost of local infrastructure for new housing.
The submission recommends several changes to the developer levy framework that will ensure that the delivery of infrastructure is transparent, economical, efficient and fair.
SIC Review submission
NSW Long Term Transport Master Plan
UDIA NSW has lodged its submission in response to the Long Term Transport Master Plan discussion paper.
UDIA NSW believes that the following guiding objectives should form the basis of the Master Plan:
- Improved integration of transport planning and investment processes that provide certainty;
- Provision of transport infrastructure focused on Growth Areas in order to shape travel patterns as new urban areas grow;
- Government to take a lead role in unlocking fragmented land areas through investment in infrastructure;
- Encouragement for the use of existing infrastructure through Government-led urban renewal that focuses on development of non-critical or surplus government land;
- Encouragment for a genuinely multi-modal approach that allows for the provision of a variety of transport alternatives; and
- Encouragement for a more efficient and contemporary management of existing infrastructure and services.
