Sydney Pins New Growth to Mass Transit Plans

Posted by: Nate Berg

6 January 2009 - 11:00am

Officials in Sydney, Australia, are creating a blueprint for the city that envisions a broad mass transit system, increased density in the inner city and the suburbs and a much higher skyline.

"Powerful new legislation underpinning a proposed metro network costing $13 billion will enable transport and planning officials to reshape the inner suburbs of Sydney, paving the way for apartment towers as high as 15 storeys as well as large-scale retail and office blocks."

"To justify the multibillion-dollar investment, tens of thousands more people would have to live and work within walking distance of the proposed Parramatta Road metro stations, according to planning officials behind the overhaul."

"The controversial population targets in the inner west, set in the State Government's planning blueprint, the Metropolitan Strategy, would be eclipsed by new targets to support a mass-transit subway."

"'It is not to say the Metro Strategy is wrong but the world has shifted,' said a senior state planning official. 'The next round of the Metro Strategy will have to consider greater in-fill [urban density].'"

Full Story: Get ready: high-rise suburbs coming

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, January 6, 2009