https://www.drd.org.au/focus daily 0.75 2026-07-17 https://www.drd.org.au/focus/15a-21-st-georges-crescent monthly 0.5 2026-07-14 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/4106ffdf-b3a0-4cb0-b8ad-08a09fd7e1ec/playlist.m3u8 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/4106ffdf-b3a0-4cb0-b8ad-08a09fd7e1ec/thumbnail Focus - 15a-21 St Georges Crescent Focus - 15a-21 St Georges Crescent https://www.drd.org.au/focus/113-st-georges-crescent monthly 0.5 2026-07-17 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/35d8cab6-1ad2-4bbf-b5e3-bc88ed10aa4b/playlist.m3u8 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/35d8cab6-1ad2-4bbf-b5e3-bc88ed10aa4b/thumbnail Focus - 113 St Georges Crescent Focus - 113 St Georges Crescent https://www.drd.org.au/focus/ssd-111289990 monthly 0.5 2026-05-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/480d80cb-f812-408b-aba1-fe268b906f80/IMG_SSD_step_2_of_8.png Focus - 72 - 76 St Georges Crescent - Make it stand out Current Status (at Step 2 of 8 – Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement) Next Milestone: Developer publishes EIS Once the EIS has been published, the community only has 14 days to respond. https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/db71711f-c1a9-43d4-927b-ce85c8a20c15/playlist.m3u8 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/db71711f-c1a9-43d4-927b-ce85c8a20c15/thumbnail Focus - 72 - 76 St Georges Crescent Focus - 72 - 76 St Georges Crescent https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/c2488964-39b7-42c4-ba27-e5fc2ec0de72/playlist.m3u8 https://video.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/c2488964-39b7-42c4-ba27-e5fc2ec0de72/thumbnail Focus - 72 - 76 St Georges Crescent Focus - 72 - 76 St Georges Crescent https://www.drd.org.au/focus/shop-top-63-69-victoria-rd-and-45-day-st monthly 0.5 2026-05-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/480d80cb-f812-408b-aba1-fe268b906f80/IMG_SSD_step_2_of_8.png Focus - Shop top 63-69 Victoria Rd and 45 Day St - Make it stand out Current Status: At step 2 of 8 – Declaration of SEARS, Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements) Next Milestone: Developer publishes EIS Once the EIS has been published, the community only has 14 days to respond. https://www.drd.org.au/focus/da2025-0211 monthly 0.5 2026-05-22 https://www.drd.org.au/focus/fo-da2026-0048 monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/focus/da2026-0028 monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/focus/da2026066 monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/focus/3-wolseley-street monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar daily 0.75 2026-05-18 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/august-month-council-meeting monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/drd-members-meeting monthly 0.5 2026-05-18 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/august-month-council-meeting-7skj8-zakkk-5c4b8-ga6x3 monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/august-month-council-meeting-7skj8-zakkk-5c4b8 monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/august-month-council-meeting-7skj8-zakkk monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/august-month-council-meeting-7skj8 monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/july-monthly-council-meeting monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/june-monthly-council-meeting monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/monthly-council-meeting monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/event-five-fknp5-ych4h-mr9yl-xhnlp monthly 0.5 2026-03-30 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/conciliation-meeting monthly 0.5 2026-05-01 https://www.drd.org.au/calendar/event-five-fknp5-ych4h-mr9yl monthly 0.5 2026-04-16 https://www.drd.org.au/events daily 0.75 2026-07-18 https://www.drd.org.au/events/density-done-better-launch monthly 0.5 2026-07-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/a934af30-814e-469c-9438-7f0aac5387f1/IMG_01_Jaqui+B.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Jacqui Brosnan Chair Doing Density Better, President Drummoyne Responsible Development Precis: The Minns government is not interested in communities nor the public voice. (1) The infill housing 30% bonus is introduced with no public but with developer consultation and housing projects over $75m are moved into the SSD pathway taking decision making away from local councils. LMR was imposed through a ministerial planning instrument, with no parliamentary debate and no genuine consultation with councils. Meanwhile the Premier’s has an open door policy to developers and planning changes are announced alongside developer groups. Less community consultation, less local decision making. There is less transparency while developers gain greater access and influence. (2) People in the communities deserve a say in the shaping of their communities. Housing is not just about numbers, but also creating great places to live. We need affordable housing, green space, infrastructure to support the additional density, Most people support additional density but they want a seat at the table, to have their views heard and be confident that growth is well planned and includes their well-being. Good government includes public voices. (3) At the upcoming election we need to support candidates with a better vision for increasing density. This is not aligned with any political party and we must hold our political representative accountable. Housing affordability, infrastructure, planning and community participation must be key issues for our candidates in this election. Change will only happen if enabled at the political level it is up to all of us to make sure our voices are heard. DDB has a plan towards that. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/8f79d528-55ca-41be-8c9e-e1fe26ff4a33/IMG_02_Elizabeth_F.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Elizabeth Farrell – Columnist, Essayist, Broadcaster, Author Precis: While Sydney needs greater housing density, the current approach is producing poorer outcomes rather than creating more liveable communities. Sydney already contains many successful examples of attractive, higher-density neighbourhoods, but recent planning policies are instead promoting low-rise, treeless developments in outer suburbs and high-rise towers in established inner areas. Both forms of development are unattractive and overly reliant on private cars. Policies such as Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and Low and Mid-Rise (LMR) reforms are concentrating redevelopment in older, established suburbs, where existing affordable housing is often demolished and replaced with expensive luxury apartments. This results in a net loss of genuinely affordable housing and displaces long-term residents from these locations. Current definitions of affordable housing are inconsistent. Developers naturally favour the most profitable sites, and that increasing housing supply alone will not improve affordability while migration continues to drive demand. In a market-driven system, developers pause construction when prices fall, limiting any sustained reduction in housing costs. Sydney needs a different model of urban densification—one that creates attractive, community-focused neighbourhoods while protecting existing residents and genuinely affordable housing. She finishes with a call for citizens to organise and advocate for planning policies that better reflect the interests of the local communities. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/5018ab46-5440-4e8d-96d8-8c0abb3e86d8/IMG_03_Louise_L.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Louise Lin – Founder Concord West, North Strathfield Locals Against Overdevelopemnt Precis: The group started when residents began asking practical questions about what planning changes meant for daily life. Childcare, transport, will infrastructure increase ahead of development. Multiple housing pathways are being layered onto communities. These overlap so infrastructure to support them must be planned, sequenced and funded as a whole and not one by one. We are faced with 2,840 38-storey approved homes, The issue is not the homes, but whether there is a place-based infrastructure plan to support them. Platitudes are not solutions, any community needs schools, childcare, safe streets, health and community services as well as transport to cope with the growth. There needs more local knowledge brought into the planning process. Our community is saying yes to more housing done properly, planned sequenced, funded and explained. We think that density can be done well. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/a1e57a97-232e-4134-8528-2dd0e1443d45/IMG_04_Philip_T.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Professor Philip Thalis – Architect and Urban Designer Precis: Philip strongly supports increased housing density but argues that Sydney is pursuing the wrong model. The contend that current planning policies—including LMR, HDA and TOD—favour high-rise apartment towers, which are the most expensive and intrusive form of housing, while failing to make efficient use of land. While supporting principle of Transit-Oriented Development heargues that it relies on rail infrastructure established more than a century old rather than being accompanied by significant new investment in peffective ublic transport today – the lack of new metro and tram lines and notes that Western Sydney is expected to rely largely on “rapid bus” services. Low and Mid-Rise (LMR) housing could be a positive reform if it permanently delivered affordable housing and was directed towards areas with capacity for growth, particularly Western Sydney. Instead it is concentrated in established inner suburbs, where smaller, more affordable homes are replaced with larger developments that accommodate fewer people and generate more car use. Current planning creates windfall gains for landowners and developers while weakening important design standards, whereas these should be strengthened, not diluted. The economic benefits of increased density should deliver greater public benefits through improved infrastructure and community outcomes. Finally, the author calls for broader structural reform, including rewriting the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, encouraging the finance sector to support alternative housing models such as housing cooperatives, and addressing the underlying drivers of housing affordability. They argue that high housing costs are driven more by taxation, banking practices and financial regulation than by the planning system itself, and that these settings disproportionately favour high-rise development. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/a3f4ae9f-16b3-4aa5-8f60-dc4afbef127e/IMG_05_Jethro_M.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Jethro Mulder – Spokesperson Mosman Matters Precis: Poor legislation is the enemy of practical planning. High hopes for LMR especially with regard to the affordable housing incentive, were dashed pretty quickly. The first DA under this resulted in Mosman losing its most affordable housing. This pattern is being repeated right across Sydney. The most affordable housing is also the most affordable for developers to buy. To unlock the 30% uplift, 15% of the floor space needs to be rented for 15 years at 80% of market rate or 30% of the household income. In Mosman, market rate is now $880 per week, in Woollahra it is $1,000 per week and in Waverly $1,168 per week – we start to see the problem. This policy is failing to deliver genuine affordable housing. We are replacing affordable by nature with affordable by policy and only for 15 years. There existed schemes where developers paid into a fund so that councils built affordable housing in perpetuity. We are in the current housing crisis because all governments have walked away from providing social housing. Watch the talk here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/6a2351fe-c3da-41a8-9800-acef289d3427/IMG_06_Diana_P.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Diana Pryde – President, Chatswood West Ward Progress Association Precis: The group’s primary focus was local issues in the part of the LGA west of the Pacific Highway down to Lane Cove River contributing to the LEP for that in support of sensitive development. Now it has had to engage more widely with the issues of the wider Willoughby LGA and address the tsunami of SSDs - there are 39 in the Chatswood CBD and one outside. These SSDs add 8,100 new dwellings to the existing plan for 12,000, Council spent 5 years developing plans and these are overridden by State Government. One example was for a DA in April 2022 for 247 apartments, 26 storeys, a 90m high building. In March 2025 they re-submitted their plan under SSD for 332 apartments, 36 apartments and 120m high building. In June 2026 they submitted to HDA to increase to 210m high. The group has been advocating for a holistic approach to no effect. The issue is the additional infrastructure, water, sewerage, traffic etc for this increase. Each developer claims their project will have no significant impact. The Mister for Roads, in answer to a question responded that “while transport for NSW acknowledges that while there may be cumulative impacts from the multiple developments in a precinct, it is not in the legislative remit to model or mitigate the effects of future development that has not yet been approved or constructed”. The current population is 79,000 with it projected to grow to 81,800 by 2041 that is up by around 3,000 people with 20,000 new dwelling planned. Something does not stack up. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/8bfd7b6d-2398-4516-bf4c-33080d292f4f/IMG_07_Peter_S.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Dr. Peter Sheridan AM – Chairman and founder Potts Point Preservation Group Precis: The question isn’t do we need more home, we do, it’s with the single metric “the number of dwellings”, whether it is real in terms of affordability and access and what are we losing to gain it. Cities are their history and character as much as their future. Governments ignore this and to trash all this is negligence of a grand scale. Governments have not build social housing in the last 50 years and have relied on developers to provide a bare minimum. It is not in their interest to provide for the less fortunate. In Potts Point pis a template for high density low-rise living, full of studios and 1 bedders. These are being demolished and replaced by 3 bedders for the ultra rich – this loss is catastrophic. Developers pay a fee to go into a pool for affordable housing but none is built. Property is a prerequisite to inequalty and we are seeing “poor door” in the new devlopment that have an affordable component, We need to expose the lack of opportunity for the more vulnerable member of our community and fight against it. The flip side is the outrageous benefit for developers with an absolute minimum public benefit in exchange. We need to push back against the blanket dismissal of public objections. We hope that all of members not just focus on their own area but work together for a better outcome for our city. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/cfd70791-de65-41c7-a863-5fd52e583e76/IMG_08_Amanda_B.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Amanda Bull – President and founder, Burwood North Community Action Group Precis: Welcome to Burwood North, a suburb dreamt up by the Minns Government, we are in fact Concord, founded in 1883. I found a pamphlet in my letter saying that 18,000 new apartments, 45,000 new residents would be arriving in my area with a 1.3 km radius in the next 15 years. That was the birth of this group. So I went to public meetings and asked about infrastructure, hospitals, schools, parks, community centres etc… the answer “Yet to be confirmed”. I did the numbers… 100,000 new people, 48,000 new apartments - our roads are already blocked. Additionally we need: 26 Primary schools, 8 high schools, 500 hospital beds, 50 GP clinics, 20 child care centres, 10 fire stations, 7 ambulance stations, 5 libraries, 20 playing fields, 2 aquatic centres, cycle infrastructure - because there is no parking for these apartments. There is no traffic management and construction plan, WestConnex runs under our suburb so the developers cannot dig down. Let’s be clear these 40+ storey towers are pure luxury, I and my children will not be able to afford to live here once we’ve been bought out. We need to push back and do it hard. Watch the talk here https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/c5791e1a-1417-4f65-968f-46f2151c795d/IMG_09_Jacqui_B.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out Jacqui Brosnan’s closing remarks including presenting DDB’s 8 policy goals for adoption https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/49751b64-d670-457f-9b52-4110f19ff8cc/IMG_10_DDB_priorities.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out The Policy priorities as presented to the attendees https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/69c08ddbbf3cae0748278877/19572889-edca-40ee-90d6-fa9a6160b933/IMG_11_DDB_priorities_support.jpg Events - Doing Density Better Launch - Make it stand out The Policy priorities are approved by the member group representatives with a show of hands. The meeting closed at around 4:30 with a number of members continuing discussions, exchanging ideas and sharing experiences at a nearby venue. 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