The Illawarra-Shoalhaven's future housing needs will not be met by vast swathes of suburbia but a style of development more akin to Paris or Barcelona, said NSW Minister for Infrastructure, Cities and Active Transport Rob Stokes.
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Mr Stokes said there was limited room for further greenfield development in the region, despite the housing shortage causing rapid rent rises.
Instead, developments of four to six storeys would be clustered around train stations.
"That would work really well in a place like Wollongong, and they are really appealing, walkable, well designed and beautiful environments," he said.
Mr Stokes also took a swipe at how the Illawarra has grown in the years past.
"We're going to have to be quite reflective, selective and thoughtful about the way in which the region develops, at least from a housing perspective," he said. "Sure there are areas around Dapto and to the south, but we do need to be cautious about the patterns of development we choose."
The comments were part of a NSW Property Council event where Mr Stokes and chief executive of the Greater Cities Commission, Elizabeth Mildwater, outlined how the Illawarra-Shoalhaven would form part of a sandstone region of six cities, including the three cities of Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle and the Hunter.
Ms Mildwater said that having transformed the Greater Sydney Commission into the Greater Cities Commission, the task would be for each region to retain its distinctiveness as part of a greater whole.
"What we've learned is that no places are the same, they're all slightly different and down here in Wollongong and the Illawarra has its own distinct advantages," she said.
That vision for the Illawarra would be one that draws upon its environment, cultural diversity and strengths in education, Mr Stokes said, along with a unique "unity of purpose".
"I'd encourage you to capitalise on that because there's nothing more compelling for someone wanting to invest in an area than a whole bunch of people who want their investment, and are willing to work together to achieve whatever dream that investor might have."
Achieving the potential of the Illawarra-Shoalhaven city region would however require a rethink in the pattern of development. Wollongong's history as a city that developed haphazardly out of a small town, meant that the key nodes of the city, the beach, CBD, hospital and university were not interconnected in a way that maximised their capabilities.
"As a result, the nature of the city is that everything is close, but everything's also a little bit far apart as well," Mr Stokes said.
Knitting these precincts together would require a greater focus on active transport links, particularly for bicycles or e-scooters. How to connect the heart of Wollongong to its suburbs and the satellite towns in the Illawarra and down to the Shoalhaven would be a greater challenge, one that when asked, Mr Stokes referred to the need to focus development within the existing towns.
"The last thing we want to see is urban sprawl marching across the beautiful green hills of the Shoalhaven. But we do want to breathe new life into the existing towns, great opportunities like the Riverfront development in Nowra, recognising that Nowra has this incredible north-facing river frontage, we just now need to build the infrastructure."
Getting the infrastructure to match the development needs, requires a level of cohesion between all levels of government, the private development sector and community, something that could be improved in the Illawarra, Mr Stokes said.
"Particularly areas like West Dapto, there are significant infrastructure challenges there."
With the development industry having pushed back against increased developer contributions to new infrastructure, Property Council NSW executive director Luke Achterstraat said that the industry wanted more transparency about where current contributions were going.
"Industry simply wants more transparency and more certainty about where their contributions go, to really have that confidence that their contributions are helping these beautiful places," he said.
"We're looking to work really constructively with other industry bodies and the government to see what's possible in that space."
Another sticking point will be the delivery of affordable housing. Ms Mildwater suggested that delivering 5 to 10 per cent affordable housing in new developments was "challenging" for the property market.
"We can all see it's not going to get there fast enough, so maybe government land needs to have higher percentages," she said.
Mr Stokes agreed, noting that the state government needed to "step up" and include more affordable housing in developments on Crown land.
"There's plenty of publicly owned land around Wollongong, and there's plenty of ways in which we can use that to provide homes for even more people," he said.
For those Parisian-style developments to succeed in Wollongong, Mr Stokes said they would need to be sympathetic to the local environment.
"We've got to lift our socks up, we've got to make sure that quality is first and foremost because if we're going to get the community to accept high density, it's got to be better than the development it replaces."
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