'Up not out': councils consider height changes to combat housing shortage

According to the University of NSW City Futures Research Centre there is a current unmet need of 3,200 dwellings in the Shoalhaven LGA.

The university's data suggests about 200 new dwellings need to be built each year by 2041 to combat the growing shortage.

Using this data to back their case, a Canberra developer is planning to build 250 apartments in a four-building project at Ulladulla.

The developers are asking Shoalhaven City Council to rezone a one hectare site at St Vincent Street, the current home of a Bunnings warehouse.

Developers, The Fleming Group, want the two lots zoned for mixed use and to raise the maximum allowable height to 21 metres.

Key to their proposal is the inclusion of 60 affordable dwellings with 50 units to be rented long-term by a community housing provider.

At the council meeting on Monday, May 20, town planning consultant Sophie Quinn, speaking on behalf of the developer, said "in-fill urban renewal sites of this scale do not come along often and it would be a real shame to see council dismiss this planning proposal and not support a growing and important town centre."

The council report recommended the proposal be knocked back. Among officers' concerns where the development's proximity to industrial businesses, impact on the town centre and the height increase disturbing the existing character of Ulladulla.

Councillor Mark Kitchener said the development is wrong for the site and the proposal would "become the catalyst forever changing Ulladulla and districts from quaint coastal settlements to high-rise tourist towns like Forster, Port Macquarie and Byron Bay."

Ms Quinn said the development would create almost 200 jobs and generate more than $1 billion in economic activity.

"The minister for planning and public spaces wrote to the council no less than 12 months ago recognising the shared responsibility of state and local government to address the housing crisis," she said.

"It is clear past strategic plans don't account for the scale of the housing crisis we now face."

Councillor John Wells agrees and said the council's planning documents, which are about 20 years old, need to be updated to respond to the changing needs of the community.

"The need for housing is probably our city's most pressing social and economic need," he said.

"We are moving from being very very short of accommodation supply and particularly in the rental market to it becoming a critical, in fact dangerous level of shortage.

"We know we have many scores of people sleeping rough every night in this town."

Community Housing Industry Association chief executive Wendy Hayhurst said high density housing is the way forward for regional NSW.

"Proposals such as this are good and very welcome but they should be the norm not the exception," she said.

"To properly tackle the housing crisis we need to move to a system where it's mandatory for all new developments to have at least five per cent social or affordable housing."

Ms Hayhurst called on the Federal Government to boost the the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) and the National Housing Accord.

"As an initial step, the government must at least double the $10 billion HAFF to $20 billion - something well within reach given the relatively favourable budgetary position," she said.

The council voted to support an amended version of the planning proposal, nine votes to two.