The Draft Sydney Plan will guide how the NSW Government manages land use and development in the Sydneyh region over the next 20 years. We urge you to make a submission, no matter how brief.

The Draft Sydney Plan is currently on exhibition until Friday 27^th February 2026.

Make a submission online HERE or sydney-plan@planning.nsw.gov.au

The Plan complements, The New Approach to Strategic Planning which aims to streamline planning.

FOKE notes the Draft Sydney Plan

• Recognises Aboriginal culture but fails to recognise other aspects of Australian culture including colonial and European heritage.
• Completely omits recognition and protection of the built heritage.
• The priority is the delivery of housing.  This overrides environmental protection.
• Fails to consider biodiversity threats including the loss of Endangered and Critical endangered ecological communities.
• Proposes to force Councils to rezone land in excess of targets, leading to ad hoc planning.
• Disempowers local planning powers making it impossible to effectively plan at a local level.
• Fails to acknowledge infrastructure support for Councils and communities targeted with increased density.
• Prioritises developers’ interests before the community benefit.
• Provides insufficient time for communities and Councils to review planning proposals.
• Imposes a top down and heavy-handed planning approach with the constant threat of the NSW Government approving developments, even those rejected by Council and the community.
• Fails to demonstrate transparency in Government decisions and associated bodies, as evidenced by the current responses to the various State Significant Development (SSD) and Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) applications.
• Undermines the current planning framework—comprising 10 regional plans, 5 district plans, 179 Local Environment Plans (LEPs), and 128 Local Strategic Planning Statements (LSPS)—and fails to acknowledge how these planning instruments importantly reflect the varied circumstances and diverse needs of  communities and environments across Sydney and NSW.

Following is a brief overview and some points you may want to consider in your submission. Please Note that you can complete a Survey online for both documents, the ‘New Approach’ and the ‘Sydney Plan’.

Email sydney-plan@planning.nsw.gov.au

Or make a submission online HERE

The Plan complements, The New Approach to Strategic Planning which aims to streamline planning.

FOKE notes the Draft Sydney Plan

• Recognises Aboriginal culture but notes the Plan fails to recognise other aspects of Australian culture. This includes colonial and European heritage.
• Completely omits to include recognition and protection of our built heritage.
• Makes the overarching priority delivery of housing,  making environmental protection and establishment of vegetation corridors secondary, without realistic mechanisms to achieve stated goals.
• Fails to consider the threat specifically to the loss of Endangered and Critical endangered ecological communities and animals.
• Proposes to force councils to rezone land in excess of targets, leading to ad hoc planning.
• Mentions collaboration with councils but dictates and legislates requirements to them, failing to allow planning at a local level.
• Fails to acknowledge infrastructure support for Councils and communities targeted with increased density.
• Prioritise developers’ interests before community benefit.
• provides insufficient time for community and council review.
• is a top down and heavy-handed approach with the constant threat of the Government approving developments rejected by Council and the community.
• fails to demonstrate transparency in Government decisions and associated bodies, as evidenced by the current responses to the various State Significant Development (SSD) applications.
• undermines the current planning framework—comprising 10 regional plans, 5 district plans, 179 Local Environment Plans (LEPs), and 128 Local Strategic Planning Statements (LSPS)—and fails to acknowledge how these planning instruments reflect the varied circumstances, environments, and the needs of diverse communities across Sydney and NSW.

You can read the documents:

https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/draftplans/exhibition/new-approach-strategic-planning-discussion-paper

https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/plans-for-your-area/the-sydney-plan

There are 3 documents available, the overview ‘New Approach to Planning’ discussion paper, the ‘Sydney Plan’ which highlights the 20 year approach and deliverables for Sydney, and an Industrial Lands paper.

We have reviewed the first two documents. The Industrial Lands document is not focused on Ku-ring-gai.

The New Approach:

The essential element in the ‘New Approach’ is that the earlier ‘Greater Sydney Region Plan – A Metropolis of Three Cities’ for Sydney has been replaced by the Sydney Plan. It is still a three cities plan, with Sydney CBD, Greater Paramatta and Bradfield/Aerotropolis replacing Penrith.

There are now 4 NSW Regions: Sydney, Lower Hunter & Central Coast, Illawarra & Shoalhaven, and one integrated remaining region plan (formerly 7). Only the Sydney Plan is currently available.

The State Land Use Plan will have seven, statewide priorities to drive planning at every level via a cascading structure from State Government through Regions to Councils.

These Priorities are:

1. Aboriginal Outcomes: to support and benefit opportunities for Aboriginal landowners to achieve social, cultural, environmental and economic self-determination.
2. Housed: Delivering affordable, diverse housing in accessible locations.
3. Prosperous: Growing resilient, innovative economies
4. Connected: Linking communities with efficient transport systems
5. Resilient: Supporting a sustainable environment and biodiversity to help achieve net zero and build climate resilience.
6. Liveable: Building vibrant places that support quality of life.
7. Coordinated: Aligning land use with infrastructure delivery.

Feedback is invited on whether these priorities are the right ones to guide land use planning across NSW. You can also reply via a Survey on the site above.

Feedback is also sought on  

• The level of support for councils or agencies to deliver their responsibilities?
• Do the regional boundaries make sense?
• How can the framework ensure that priorities are delivered locally?
• The best methods for Plans to be meaningful and responsive?

FOKE Comments:

1. The plans show a complete disregard for the importance of our built heritage.  Under the Priorities listed there is no mention of European cultural heritage in terms of supporting and protecting our built environment. In fact, across the two documents of 110pages and 10 Appendices, our built heritage has only been mentioned once.
2. Our important and endangered environmental communities only receive scant mention in the rush for development.
3. There is a lack of infrastructure support for Councils and communities targeted with increased density.
4. It states that stakeholders have been consulted on the issues with regard to the current system complexity but does not state who these stakeholders were. The proposals for streamlining the approach to land use planning and decision-making across NSW and introducing a simpler approach will benefit foremost the development industry.
5. Streamlining is interpreted as less time for community consultation, council review, a top down and heavy-handed approach with the constant threat of the Government approving developments rejected by Council and the community.
6. Lack of transparency in decisions by Government and associated bodies continues, as evidenced by the current responses to the various State Significant Development (SSD) applications.
7. This document states that the planning structure is focused on shared goals. There is no statement of research with the community for these goals, or who has been consulted.

The Sydney Plan determines the impact on Sydney Local Government Areas (LGAs).

The main document is supported by 10 Appendices.

‘The draft Sydney Plan applies to the same 33 LGAs as the 2018 Greater Sydney Region Plan. A Ministerial Order will declare the ‘Sydney region’. Under EP&A Act amendments yet to commence, all strategic planning regions will be declared by Ministerial Order and include, revoke and replace provisions for regional and district plans.’

Sydney is split into 4 sub-regions with Eastern Sydney (North) encompassing Ku-ring-gai.

The Sydney Plan responds to the 7 Priorities of the ‘New Approach’ with 12 Responses, or strategies:

Response 1 Implement Sydney housing targets

Response 2 Increase housing diversity and choice

Response 3 Secure the supply of affordable housing

Response 4 Grow well-located jobs

Response 5 Align infrastructure to planned growth

Response 6 Create a more vibrant Sydney

Response 7 Grow and connect public open space

Response 8 Secure an ongoing pipeline of productive industrial lands

Response 9 Minimise the impact of natural hazards to communities

Response 10 Sequence planned growth in greenfield areas within the urban footprint

Response 11 Manage land uses beyond the urban footprint

Response 12 Protect and enhance the natural environment

The document highlights that the focus of housing planning and population growth will concentrate on Eastern Sydney in the next 20 years using existing infrastructure. The development in Western Sydney will be a longer-term goal.

The Sydney Plan is not providing any extra funding for infrastructure or services to Eastern Sydney. ‘This plan focuses on providing homes and jobs for Sydney’s growing population, centred around better utilising infrastructure and rebalancing future growth to reduce the urban sprawl of the Sydney region ever outwards. The greatest share of existing infrastructure and amenities is in the east of the city. The future urban settlement pattern will focus on rebalancing housing growth in established areas in the east.’  

A new body, The Urban Development Program (UDP) and its committee will monitor land supply and development. Nowhere is the composition of this committee outlined.

Though the document mentions housing diversity as a key goal, the experience in all instances to date has been for apartments to dominate the housing development targets.

Statements about the importance of the current legislation introduced by the State Government addressing affordable housing needs are overly optimistic. The current affordable housing requirements for an uplift in height for current State Significant Developments (SSDs) is only for 15 years.

The Sydney Plan raises the option and flexibility for the Minister to add more infill development areas to those already targeted and allow spot rezonings. It also allows proponent led development proposals.

The document states that planning must take a long-term approach to protecting and enhancing Sydney’s waterways, biodiversity, bushland, rural lands and connected green spaces and corridors. ‘Aligning planning controls with contemporary environmental management approaches early in the planning process will provide pathways to protect the range of natural assets and areas with biodiversity values within Sydney.’ This will be done via a biodiversity certification process that will be undertaken by Councils.

As Ku-ring-gai is an area of high levels of sensitive biodiversity, endangered ecological communities, remnant forests and creeks leading into major waterways and the harbour it is essential that this certification process is not a ‘whitewash’. There is no detail on how this certification process will be undertaken.

Protection of our built, natural and cultural heritage is not mentioned.

23 February 2026