The Minns government’s decision to review the future of working ports at Glebe Island with an eye to high-density housing is surely an idea whose time has come.
A former Treasury secretary, Michael Schur, is assessing options, including moving the ports, retaining them with no nearby housing, or building a hybrid model. The marinas at Rozelle Bay, on the other side of the Western Distributor, are also under the review microscope. Passenger cruise operations at White Bay are excluded and will remain.
The Bays West precinct has long been earmarked for more housing, commerce and cultural activity but the government believes more density is warranted given a metro station is due to open there in 2032. Bays West is one of eight metro or heavy-rail sites the government has designated as an “accelerated precinct” under its Transport-Oriented Development Program, meaning the state planning department has more influence over the master planning for the area.
The Herald’s Sydney editor, Michael Koziol, reported exclusively on Thursday that the review has been conducted in secret, but already affected industries and areas of government with a vested interest in Glebe Island are pushing back against feared changes.
The Port Authority of NSW, a state-owned corporation, is staunchly opposed to relocating its Glebe Island operations, which receive large amounts of the state’s cement, sugar and gypsum. In a recent submission to the government’s Freight Policy Reform Program, it said moving to Port Kembla or Newcastle would be expensive, push up the price of commodities like cement and sugar, generate hundreds of thousands of extra truck movements a year, and increase carbon emissions. The Port Authority also warned against a hybrid of industry and housing at Glebe Island, citing noise, pollution and track movements made such shared usage incompatible.
That is a doubled-edged argument that can be used to keep industry or remove it, but that said, the estimates of costs to materials do seem inflated, although there is no doubt being moved on would be a massive and challenging change for the authority.
Fourteen months ago, Premier Chris Minns told the Herald’s Sydney 2050 Summit that building up and not out was the key to creating a vibrant, young metropolis. Bays West is certainly a pivotal part of that change of heart on Sydney development to address the city’s housing crisis.
Plans for the other seven sites, including Crows Nest, Kellyville and Homebush, are on public exhibition, but the Bays West plan, providing for the building of a metro station next to the White Bay power station, has been delayed until mid-2025 while the port question is settled.
Only 250 homes are slated for development nearby, a legacy of the Coalition government. It defies logic to build the new metro and not increase the area’s housing density. But if high-density housing is green-lighted, the government must ensure it is done well while satisfying people it will not drive up construction costs.
Source Agencies
