The NSW Government is committed to delivering more well-located and affordable homes near transport, amenities and jobs.
The Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Accelerated Precincts will play a significant role in boosting housing supply near major transport hubs while promoting walkable, vibrant areas.
Bankstown was identified as an accelerated precinct due to its close proximity to metro stations and key public transport interchanges, promoting walking and cycling opportunities.
This rezoning amends the planning controls for the Bankstown TOD Accelerated Precinct. This rezoning will provide:
- capacity for 14,000 new homes
- capacity for 14,300 new jobs across the precinct
- affordable housing contribution of 3% to 4% for all new residential development in the precinct
- new open space, with better walkways and cycleways.
You can find more information in the final rezoning documents located on the NSW Planning Portal.
Community consultation
The Bankstown Rezoning Proposal was exhibited for public consultation between 16 July and 30 August 2024.
During exhibition the Department hosted multiple community in-person sessions and webinars. These sessions allowed us to directly engage with 126 members of the local community, resulting in 360 submissions for consideration.
We thank the local community and other key stakeholders for providing feedback during public exhibition.
Following detailed consideration of submissions received during exhibition, there have been several changes made to the rezoning proposal. These include:
- capacity for up to 1,500 more homes in key areas
- more public open spaces
- more flexible planning controls for key sites to encourage faster development
- provisions to encourage more community facilities
- provisions to encourage the delivery of a new bus interchange and publicly accessible open space at the Bankstown Shopping Centre site.
The rezoning will come into effect on 27 November 2024.
Policy changes to streamline development assessment
We have introduced policy changes to streamline development assessment and accelerate housing delivery in the TOD Accelerated Precincts.
The reforms aim to have a consistent approach to both rezoning and assessment across the precincts.
An Explanation of Intended Effect (EIE) outlining the proposed changes was on exhibition for public feedback between 9 July and 23 August 2024.
Feedback from the exhibition has been taken into consideration and the changes which will be implemented in the TOD Accelerated Precincts include:
- a temporary State Significant Development pathway until November 2027 for residential development applications valued over $60 million in the TOD Accelerated Precincts
- height and floor-space bonuses and the associated State Significant Development pathway for in-fill affordable housing will be turned off to avoid conflict with planning controls in TOD Accelerated Precincts, which include requirements for affordable housing
- a 3-year exemption from some low-risk concurrence and referral requirements at the DA stage to speed up assessment timeframes because these matters have been addressed at the rezoning stage
- introducing a specific design excellence pathway in place of design competitions to streamline the delivery of housing while maintaining high-quality design. For more information go to Exemption from design competitions.
To see the final changes visit the NSW Planning Portal.
What happens next
Amendments will be made to the Canterbury-Bankstown Local Environmental Plan 2023 (LEP) and new planning controls will come into effect.
Frequently asked questions
In developing the Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Program, the Department undertook analysis of 305 transport stations within the Greater Sydney, Hunter, Central Coast and Illawarra regions to identify locations that have enabling rail, water and wastewater infrastructure capacity near the transport station to support additional housing growth.
Bankstown was chosen for accelerated rezoning under the TOD Program announced in December 2023.
For more information, read the TOD Program assessment criteria (PDF, 121 KB).
Under the TOD Program, the Department led this rezoning proposal to address housing supply and affordability challenges and help meet the NSW Government's commitments under the National Housing Accord to deliver 377,000 new, well-located homes across the state by 2029.
When the rezoning comes into effect on 27 November 2024, the NSW Government will make changes to local planning rules in the Bankstown City Council area.
The delivery of new open space and parks to support growth in Bankstown is an important component of this rezoning.
The NSW Government has committed $520 million to provide active transport links and good quality public open spaces in the TOD Accelerated Precincts.
The new Housing and Productivity Contribution will contribute towards providing state and regional infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and schools.
Council will continue to collect local infrastructure contributions from all development in the precinct.
The Department will continue to work with Bankstown City Council and key state agencies to ensure additional growth resulting from the rezoning is reflected by council’s infrastructure contributions plan to allow for the collection of funding towards local infrastructure such as roads, parks and cycleways.
The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has worked collaboratively with key state agencies, including Health NSW and the Department of Education, to ensure sufficient infrastructure is provided to support the growth in the precinct.
The Department of Education has advised that existing schools have capacity to support short-term growth, and the Department is progressing planning for the area to confirm where and when additional school capacity will be required in the future.
The Department of Education will continue to monitor growth to ensure adequate capacity is provided to support the future population of the precinct.
The Department is encouraging local councils to establish Special Entertainment Precincts to make sure that the TOD Accelerated Precincts are lively and vibrant places to live, work and play.
The Department will assist councils to identify appropriate areas in the TOD locations to maximise the benefits of having a Special Entertainment Precinct and help councils make this change to their local planning instruments.
For more information go to Special Entertainment Precincts.
The Department has established a 3% base rate across all sites and higher rates for key sites within all the TOD Accelerated Precincts.
In the Bankstown TOD Accelerated Precinct, there are 2 key sites identified which will have mandatory contributions of 4% affordable housing.
All affordable housing contributions within the TOD Accelerated Precincts are mandatory either as a monetary contribution or an in-kind contribution, and any affordable homes provided must be managed by a registered Community Housing Provider (CHP).
It is also proposed that a savings provision is included which means that any development applications that are currently lodged (but not yet determined) with a council or the Department are not required to pay this affordable housing contribution, however they will still be required to pay the contribution that applied when the development application was lodged.
Key sites were selected following detailed economic analysis of individual site characteristics and against the objectives of the rezoning proposal. Affordable housing rates were developed based on feasibility testing, which considered other contributions, fees and charges and development costs.
This rezoning provides the opportunity for growth and change over the next 10–15 years and beyond. It is likely that development will occur in a staged manner in the short, medium and long term. The uptake of development will be subject to market conditions and development feasibility.