Lost property?

AUSTRALIA: Residents of Sydney are concerned that they could soon lose their schools, hospitals, and churches — not to floods or fire, but to property developers.

The planning department of the state of New South Wales (NSW) has instructed city councils to rezone and standardize “special-purpose” land. This means that a school or other public property in a residential neighbourhood will also be zoned to permit low-density or general housing.

Critics say that rezoning would allow the government to sell non-commercial land, such as school sports fields, to developers in order to take advantage of high property values. “The uplift in land values from the rezoning in some of these sites is enormous,” says  David Shoebridge, member of parliament for the Green party. Certain schools “would be worth more than Aus$ 50 million (€36 million) if sold for single-lot redevelopment”.

Rezoning will allow the government to sell school sports fields to property developers.

The state says that it is simplifying the city’s local environment plans (LEPs). Defenders of the rezoning say it will make it easier to build new schools in residential areas. Shoebridge is sceptical. “I've yet to meet a single resident who wants this or any future state government to be able to be more ‘flexible’ with their local school or hospital,'” he told The Sydney Morning Herald.