MEDIA RELEASE - 28 SEPTEMBER 2010

With the NSW building industry experiencing stunted growth, a number of developers have sought to capitalise on the NSW State Government's new State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009. This SEPP, also known as the SEPP for boarding houses, is designed to increase the amount and diversity of affordable housing across NSW.

Historically, boarding houses have too often attracted great notoriety. The public’s general experiences of boarding houses are usually connected with individuals who bring criminal elements into the local neighbourhoods as well as their disregard for the local environment.

“Unfortunately, the recent spate of proposals for boarding houses expose particular undesirable outcomes from the SEPP, including allowing boarding houses that are built side-by-side, not requiring an on-site manager for those up to 20 lodgers per boarding house, no reasonable formula to calculate the maximum number of boarders per boarding house, and overriding local councils’ zoning laws that were publicly consulted such that you can put boarding houses anywhere and exceed the already agreed maximum densities,” said Deputy Lord Mayor Chiang Lim.

After requesting an urgent review of the SEPP for boarding houses in late May 2010, the NSW Planning Minister, the Hon Tony Kelly MLC agreed with Deputy Lord Mayor Chiang Lim to a review of NSW’s boarding houses law. “The issues raised by Councillor Lim with regard to the potential boarding house density and on site manager requirements have been noted. The Department [of Planning] has commenced a review of the SEPP and will take Councillor Lim’s views into account as part of the review”, wrote Minister Kelly.

“While I thank Minister Kelly for agreeing with me that an urgent review of the boarding houses SEPP was necessary, time is of the essence. There are already proposals for more boarding houses using this SEPP in the pipeline and local communities are at risk of having them approved well before the SEPP is reviewed and fixed,” said Clr Lim.

Click here for a copy of Deputy Lord Mayor Chiang Lim's letter to the NSW Government dated 20 May 2010.

Click here for a copy of NSW Planning Minister Tony Kelly's letter dated 25 August 2010.

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For any further information, please contact Deputy Lord Mayor Clr Chiang Lim,
Parramatta City Council on 0427 277 299 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

http://www.chianglim.com.au/mediareleases