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Will Byron become the Malibu of the antipodes?
The Byron Shire Echo Volume 37 #04 • July 6, 2022
Here’s a tiny violin There are a few times when a tiny violin is required to be taken out of its small instrument case to sooth the sounds of the monied class. It’s needed to play as they whine about whatever it is that stops them from making even more money. Now is one of those times. At last week’s Council meeting, a parade of developer reps stood/Zoomed before our erstwhile councillors and moaned about the prohibitive cost to develop in Byron Shire. See page 1. It’s too expensive, they bleated, and the cost is waaaaay more than other councils when temporarily hiring footpaths and road reserves to build large commercial buildings. When the foot soldiers of wealthy developers finished their speeches, councillors said nothing. So, given the absence of councillor curiosity as to why that expense was imposed in the first place, let’s explore why. For years, the general consensus from residents was they didn’t want to entice large developments in Byron. We are different, we told ourselves, and we are not the Gold Coast. Almost all councillors would agree with the sentiment, of course. Yet, as anyone with a cursory interest in politics knows, once a politiican is elected, ambitions take hold, and they begin the sad exercise in selling one vision to the public, while actually voting for another. Deception and public persuasion is, after all, a core business activity of politics. The reason why costs were high to develop in Byron was to maintain pressure on developers and maintain the low key vibe to the town. Giving wealthy developers
free rein, for example, results in places like the Gold Coast. It’s always good time to ask ourselves if that’s what we want for the future of the Shire. Being different from the Gold Coast requires councillor knowledge of planning law and the courage to implement reform. Policy levers matter, and what councillors voted for last week was a weakening of a policy lever to favour large commercial developers. And Byron’s development activity doesn’t look to be suffering, despite whatever the developer’s foot soldiers complain about. Meanewhile, height limits in the town keep being pushed and pushed, thanks to a Council too scared to defend themselves in court or willing to strengthen planning policies. Wealthy property developers already have a massive advantage over individual community members who are affected by their DAs, for example. The laws and courts are in favour of development. If Byron wants to be different, it starts with councillors implementing clear policy around what the community expects. Otherwise, it’s a lot of empty rhetoric claiming to want one thing and then voting for another. Hans Lovejoy, editor
H
ere’s another reason for millennials to be marching on the street. We found out last week that on Census Day 2021, 15 per cent of the dwellings in the Byron Shire were unoccupied (2,348 places to be precise). That figure was 30 per cent in Byron Bay itself; three times the national average. The local revolution is nigh among the young, and let’s not hold our breath for a Northern Rivers squatting law. Although housing affordability has become a national issue, there are undoubtedly unique circumstances in our area that are not being adequately addressed. The community has been failed by State and local government representatives over the last decade, who were bystanders (and perhaps complicit) as house prices skyrocketed, as rents went up (by 24 per cent) while the region didn’t adequately increase affordable housing stock for those in need.
Airbnb bear no cost from new letting regulations The NSW government has started regulating Airbnb/holiday letting without requiring the data needed to fully understand our housing situation. It has gone through this process without adding any cost to Airbnb, holiday letters or even holiday makers to the process (meaning a whole new regulatory framework has gone through the State parliament without a single new dollar for our area). Aggregate and anonymised data from the large letting corporations would give us a better sense of which houses are being leased, for how long and how much, allowing the community to better plan for the future and even raise some income in the process. It is going to be close to impossible to measure any meaningful impact of the new 90 day restriction on letting rules. Will there be an increase in long-term accommodation, or simply more unoccupied houses? In San Francisco, where I have
‘The problem with the “granny ǕëƐƆș ƆĈIJĕŔĕ ĶƆ ƐIJëƐ ƐIJĕƷ ŕşƱ ŕĕĕĎ Ɛş ëĈĈşŔŔşĎëƐĕ ĪƖōō ŔĶōōĕŕŕĶëō ĪëŔĶōĶĕƆǼ ŕşƐ ŇƖƆƐ īſëŕŕƷȁȝ Damian Kassabgi lived, a house was not permitted to be listed on Airbnb without being licensed by the city, which included A$650 fee every two years. Without knowing the full extent of the Airbnb letting penetration in our area, let’s assume the 2,348 unoccupied households in the Shire were charged a similar fee for the privilege of holiday letting – such a scheme would raise $1.5 million in new revenue for the area (every two years!). But of course this revenue raising can’t occur at a local government level without NSW legislation. In relation to the accommodation needed – millennials and gen z’s (i.e. the workers in our cafes, restaurants, gardens and salons) aren’t asking for much. My partner, son (four) and I have been living in a 60m2 granny flat over the past two years. We built it back in 2014, without realising we’d need it in 2020 as COVID refugees coming home from some years working abroad. Even though it is a temporary situation for us, we have learned a lot about what permanent accommodation needs to look like for a small family. We speak about how our place may have been a permanent solution if planning rules had allowed it to be 30 or 40sqm larger. A 90sqm place would have allowed for a second bedroom, a full size kitchen – even some space for a home office and a surfboard or two! The problem with the ‘granny flats’ scheme is that they now need to accommodate full millennial families, not just granny. Harvard Professor and urban economist, Edward Glasear, has calculated that the world’s population could fit in a land area the size of Texas in townhouse style accommodation.
A good size terrace in Sydney’s Paddington, Newtown, Surry Hills or Glebe has a total internal space of somewhere between 90 and 120sqm. Terrace housing is clustered, meaning there is lower impact on the environment – less land use, with less building material and piping needed. Of course our region is not, and should never be a city, but the point is that high rises and overdevelopment do not need to be the answer to density and accommodation issues. With the right planning laws, we should be imaginative enough to use the abundant land around us, to permanently house families with a low impact on our environment with architecture that is sensitive to our landscape with long-term letting requirements. The good news from the census is that young people want to be part of our region, giving it energy and life. The census showed that we now have a larger Spanish speaking population per head than the rest of the nation, and with significant pockets of people from Brazil, Germany and Israel. New residents can bring ideas, new perspectives and texture such as surfers and alternative thinkers did decades ago. Only if there are opportunities for a wide range of people however, and not just those who can afford to buy here, can we prosper from our youth and these new waves of diversity. We now need the political will and nous to deliver for this new generation through good, permanent, affordable housing – lest we become the Malibu of the antipodes. Q Damian is a resident of Byron Bay and a former policy adviser to Prime Ministers Rudd and Gillard.
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