Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure: City of Ryde calls for more as it surpasses housing targets

Ryde councillors have called on the state government for hundreds of millions to be invested into local infrastructure, as the number of dwellings within the LGA grows.

What happened: Among local council areas lagging behind on state housing targets, the city of Ryde has excelled at building new housing for the Greater Sydney region, overshooting their target of 5,790 new homes by almost a thousand.

However, councillors argue the infrastructure necessary to support these houses is missing.

State support requested: A motion was moved at the council's October meeting to call on the NSW state government to “allocate significant sums of infrastructure capital” toward the city of Ryde.

• “Ryde is overachieving in the housing crisis and we desperately need the infrastructure to compensate so that we aren’t creating the housing crisis of twenty years from now”, said Councillor Cameron Last, who seconded the motion.

• “We need a place where people want to live, not just a place where people do live.”

How much money: The motion made specific mention of the $200 million that was recently invested into the inner city suburb of Woollahra for a train station, calling for similar investment in Ryde. 

• “We need to not just step into the housing crisis by building houses, but instead by building communities”, said Mayor Trenton Brown.

Opposition: Some councillors — Penny Pedersen and Lyndal Howison — argued that the motions claim that the area lacked “commitments of infrastructure” was an overstatement, citing the construction of new schools and expansion of bus services.

Outcome: The motion passed 10–3.