Size matters

Shrinking

From our friends at in Australia.  If you had any doubts that Smart Growth is equally hated by citizens everywhere, yet advanced by planners worldwide, here is the proof.  

We are not dumb cattle that can't think for ourselves - but then maybe that's the problem. Independent decision-making by the masses can't be tolerated.  The world isn't shrinking, just our lots, our homes, our freedoms and our lives.  What is expanding however, is our awareness and displeasure over how we are being herded into smaller and smaller homes placed closer and closer together at a much bigger price.

From Save our Suburbs, Sydney Australia

SOS is quoted in the Local Government section of today’s Sydney Morning Herald ( see SMH 19 August 14 attached).  We express dismay at the ridiculously small size of housing lots being released – some less than half the floor area of what in the past has been an average newly constructed home.

This is all part of Government bureaucrats trying to force us into their concept of how we should live – in high-density.

Never mind that the justifications given by these mandarins are completely spurious.  Just to mention two –

·     High density does not reduce traffic congestion (even near rail stations) as can be observed in any high-density area in Sydney - congestion increases substantially. 

·     High density does not save any significant land.  See the attached diagram (SavedArea) which illustrates the small land area that would be saved if residential densities in Sydney with its current population were to be double what they actually are now.  This would save only 5 km off a 40 km cross section. Negligible, especially considering only 0.2% of Australia is urbanised. What is more, research shows jobs follow residences and work trip travel times are generally lower in lower density suburbs.

As I say in the SMH article, the solution to the unaffordability problem (and a host of other difficulties we are increasingly facing) is to abandon high-density policies.  We should implement the tried and tested planning policies that allowed the vast majority of people to choose to live in pleasant single-residential family homes that one average salary could pay for.

The Government should be enhancing our quality of life, not trashing it.