Waterloo Development Will Lead to ‘Ghettos of the Future’: Sydney Mayor

Sydney mayor Clover Moore has labelled the state government’s vision for the future of Waterloo’s social housing estate a “planning disaster”, criticising the government’s plans to more than triple the number of homes in the estate.

The socially-minded Sydney mayor condemned the government’s plans as a “significant threat to Sydney’s future economic growth and liveability”.

The Berejiklian government proposal for the redevelopment of Waterloo public housing estate includes towers reaching up to 40-storeys and as many as 7200 homes.

Minister for Social Housing Pru Goward released three options for redevelopment on Friday – Waterloo Estate, Waterloo Village Green and Waterloo Park – with each option including at least 6500 dwellings, retail and public space.

The redevelopment targets 30 per cent social housing, and allows for at least 5 per cent of the new homes to be delivered as affordable housing.

Moore slammed the proposal as doing “shockingly little” to address the urgent need for social and affordable housing.

“The three proposals show that at best the current number of social housing will increase by 148 homes, at worst it will be reduced by 62 homes,” Moore said.

“And at just five per cent of the overall housing mix – there will only be a maximum of 360 affordable housing dwellings.”

Related: Sydney Prepares to Fight Against Destruction of Glebe History

Moore said that the redevelopment ignores planning controls and provides no detail on how the area will cope.

Neighbouring development includes the four-tower “Metro Quarter” project, which will house 700 people, the Australian Technology Park – adding 10,000 workers to the area – and the Green Square development site which will be home to 61,000 people and 22,000 workers by 2030.

“All these developments will be surrounded by traffic streaming off the WestConnex St Peter’s interchange – expected to bring 120,000 extra cars into the city every day,” Moore said.

Chief executive of developer lobby group Urban Taskforce Chris Johnson defended the state government's proposal.

“Statements by Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, that the proposed renewal of social housing at Waterloo will create ‘ghettos’ is a wrong interpretation of this project," Johnson said.