This week, Tone Wheeler gave a presentation on residential growth, density and the composition of the built environment in Sydney over the last 180 years. The idea of the expansion of our city in a manner that is consistent with smaller lots, larger footprints and greater monotony was presented as a quirky series of four case studies on "the Hills" - Surry Hills, Summer Hill, Pennant Hills & Beaumont Hills.
How sustainable is the future of our city when new development in Sydney's west is not only bigger than ever before but heavily reliant on the existing employment opportunities and essential facilities of the CBD and inner suburbs and entirely dependent on private motor vehicles and ever-expanding road systems to access them?
As a local student and also currently in the process of trying to buy my first home, the lecture certainly struck a note of familiarity with me. Last year, my fiance and I drove all the way out to Box Hil - another Hills suburb which represents an additional half 10 km ring further out than Beaumont Hills - to check out a land auction for a new master planned community called 'The Gables'. Being fresh out of uni and on low incomes, we drove well past Sydney's rail network and the excitement of shopping districts and sports stadiums, through acres of farm land, in search of the base for a home we could afford. To our horror, in this wasteland so far away from the bustle of Sydney city that smelt like farm animals, void of any infrastructure (including streets at this stage), they were auctioning off blocks of a maximum 450 m2 for well over $500,000! We couldn't believe it. We didn't even want to live out here!
Source: Celestino & Ray White 2016, 'Masterplan', The Gables Box Hill, accessed 11 March 2016, <http://www.thegablesboxhill.com.au/uploads/The-Gables-Masterplan-Web.pdf>.
As Tone conveyed, Australians are so transfixed on owning their own land. They'll pay anything for a slice no matter where it is! Admittedly, here we were, nearly 50 km out from the CBD hoping for our own little slice - so that we could get a dog. After turning away from the dollar sign attached to these cow paddocks, we headed back to our homes, an easy 30 minute train ride from the CBD, picked up a map and drew a line, north to south. Now we find ourselves at open homes in Parramatta every second weekend, browsing through the more affordable alternative and the very alternative Tone spoke about in his lecture. These townhouses allow us to keep our little slice of backyard for the dog and yet we are only a short stroll from a bustling business district, complete with restaurants and shopping and a train station with express services to the city. Everything we want in our home is right here.
On top of all this, the more compact nature of this development reduces the extent of services required to support these homes and with shared walls, no two metre side accesses between houses are wasting space, providing a much more sustainable alternative. Why don't we see more of this type of development? Here's hoping that ever-increasing house prices, driving people out of this market, will point more and more people to considering the alternative where an understanding of the environmental impacts of current development practices in Sydney has so far not managed to get through.
No comments:
Post a Comment