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This is what the premier doesn’t want Sydney’s new metro rail line to look like
Chris Minns has a clear idea of what he doesn’t want the Sydenham to Bankstown metro to look like: the Chatswood to Tallawong metro.
“The density on those lines didn’t come into place,” the premier lamented. “All of the projected towers, some of which had been done in consultation with North West Metro, didn’t eventuate.” Buildings that were supposed to be 40 storeys were slashed to about 12, he said.
The Cherrybrook metro station, which opened in 2019 but is pictured under construction, is surrounded by low-density detached housing.Credit: Internet
Confirming he would proceed to convert the Bankstown line from heavy rail to metro, Minns gave his strongest signal yet that under his leadership, Sydney’s metro system will be as much a housing policy as it is a transport policy. It will be one that dishes out higher density in return for financial contributions from developers.
This will likely take the form of taxing the increase in land value, or “value capture” as it is usually called. It has been a bit of a dirty term in Australia, despite being the preferred funding mechanism for similar projects elsewhere, including the profitable Hong Kong metro.
Minns said on Tuesday he was not ready to release the details of his value capture plans, but “I’m not taking it off the table.
“When you’ve got a massive explosion in the budget for an infrastructure project, you do need a rescue package in place, and we are looking at potential revenue measures that could see money coming into the project to sustain and justify the cost.”
Premier Chris Minns and Transport Minister Jo Haylen board a new metro train that is undergoing testing on the main section of the City and Southwest line.Credit: Nick Moir
In fact, we already do this, but possibly not in the best way. A special infrastructure contribution to fund the Pyrmont station for Metro West – levied at $15,000 per unit for residential development in the defined area – is supposed to raise up to $280 million.
Joe Langley, a value capture expert who has advised Transport for NSW on the topic, acknowledges this does not always help generate funds to build the train line. “They collect it when the homes are built,” he says. “It can take 25 years to realise.”
A better way, says Langley, is to replace stamp duty with land tax (something this government has baulked at) and capture the uplift. The ideal way, he says, is to apply the charge at the time of the rezoning, so developers are literally paying for density.
(There are other ways, too, such as the deal under which Macquarie Group is building the Martin Place metro station in return for the development rights above.)
A map showing the Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor Study Area.Credit: Department of Planning
A lot of rezoning has already occurred along the south-west metro corridor, as Minns mentioned on Tuesday, in anticipation that the metro would be built. In contrast to his previous comments about obstructionist mayors who say “no or hell no” to development, the premier praised councils along the corridor. They were “ready, willing and able to take increased density”, he said.
But when push comes to shove, there will be community blowback – as there was when the Inner West Council circulated draft rezoning proposals for land near Marrickville and Dulwich Hill rail stations last year.
Many residents were never too crash hot about the metro to begin with: community group Save Marrickville, for instance, formed in response to proposed rezoning around the station in 2017. The draft Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor Strategy received 2800 submissions.
Asked on Tuesday whether the metro would mean turning Marrickville into Manhattan, Minns repeated the Greater Cities Commission would set new housing targets with a clear directive to increase density near stations.
Given the government has effectively abolished the commission and folded it into the Planning Department, Minns and his ministers whose seats are affected (including Transport Minister Jo Haylen) won’t be able to hide behind a separate agency when it comes to realising those targets.
There are plans to modestly increase density along the North West Metro, too. The Cherrybrook strategy, finalised in December under the previous government, expects up to 3200 new homes within 400 metres of the station, in buildings of no more than five storeys.
It sounds like that won’t be nearly enough for Minns.
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