Nimbys, Yimbys, planners and politicians are locking horns in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, as medium-rise apartment blocks continue their relentless march into the city’s more desirable suburbs.

The latest battleground between the builders and the blockers is Rose Bay where, according to a story in the Australian Financial Review,  residents fear another  Sydney’s Mascot Towers – will be built on their soft, low-lying land.

In fact, they say it’s already happening with cracks appearing in homes next to developments, one house next to a new excavation for a unit block car park having had two rooms collapse, while more than a dozen more projects planned for the area are awaiting approval.

Locals have said the over-development, combined with the suburb’s shallow water table,  mean their homes are cracking already and that new developments  will literally be on shaky ground.

Residents told the AFR those concerns are serious, are based on hydrogeological analysis and should not be simply dismissed as NIMBYism

But, that’s pretty much how  Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully has characterised their claims, as “new and creative ways to say no to housing”.

Cracked Walls

However, residents on either side of a four-storey building on Richmond Road obtained a stop-work order from the NSW building commissioner when they noticed cracks appearing in their unit walls after digging began for the development’s one-storey basement car park.

The Save Rose Bay resident action group told the AFR it has reports of cracked walls, basement garages flooding and plumbing problems in at least 10 other homes near new developments.

“It’s an uninsurable risk, and people have basically kept quiet because they don’t want their property devalued,” Save Rose Bay committee member Carmen McLoughlin said.

Residents and some local councillors, believe the suburb’s low-lying water table can’t cope with the amount of deep excavation needed for multi-storey underground car parks. There are 13 apartment development applications currently going through planning.

Falling population

Planning minister Paul Scully disagrees. “I have confidence that if sites have constraints, professionals such as engineers and designers … will get it right [because] they have been doing so for years,” he told the AFR.

“But seriously, this sounds like NIMBY-ism by another name from a council whose population has been falling over the last 30 years, while most other council areas have grown exponentially.

“I am growing tired of this approach to housing where some people think that the best thing they can do is look for new and creative ways to say no to housing, instead of embracing new and creative ways for their suburb to help tackle our housing challenge.”

Sydney YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) group chairman Justin Simon told the AFR that podium parking structures, fewer parking spots or eliminating parking from apartment buildings were possible solutions to the residents’ concerns.

“Rose Bay has spent decades failing to build enough and as a result, it has some of the most expensive housing on the planet. We’ve been putting homes in Sydney’s west instead because fewer locals complain, but that’s not fair and it’s not strategic.”

You can read the full AFR report HERE.