Higher density housing hubs in outlying suburbs, mandated social housing percentages in new developments and making unproductive agricultural available for use are among ideas put forward as the Tasmanian Government looks to bring in new planning policies.
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The next step has been reached, with the public release of more than 100 submissions on ways to shape Tasmania's future through strategic land use planning.
The Tasmanian Planning Policies are being designed to guide the state's ambitions, to be applied via the three regional land use strategies and the Tasmanian Planning Scheme.
They would be key to significantly increasing housing stock in the coming decades.
While the draft policies include consideration of environmental and heritage protection, "liveable settlements", infrastructure and economic development, the lack of mention of social and affordable housing and the impacts of short-stay accommodation caused concern.
Call for focus on affordable housing
A range of social housing stakeholders - from providers Community Housing Ltd and Centacare Evolve Housing, through to emergency relief agencies City Mission and Neighbourhood House - urged the government to include social and affordable housing as its own topic in the policies.
This would force decision-makers to include the needs of lower income Tasmanians when planning for housing.
Neighbourhood Houses Tasmania chief executive officer Michael Bishop said the proposed policies did not reflect the level of need for disadvantaged people.
"Planning for ongoing supply of affordable housing for vulnerable people is complex and dependent upon land availability, capital funding and many other variables," he said.
Groups also argued that short-stay accommodation should be listed as an issue under the economic development section, which would require planners to consider its impact on housing needs.
Latest data shows whole-of-dwelling short-stay continues to be added across the state.
Hobart City Mission chief executive officer John Stubley said the state's short-stay regulations were uneven.
"We are making people homeless, to make way for tourists," he wrote.
"This is not a fair or equitable situation."
In response, the government will insert both housing affordability and visitor accommodation as issues.
While continuing to develop planning policies for the coming decades, the government's target of 10,000 new social and affordable dwellings by 2032 will stay in place.
Last week's budget included $538 million within the four-year forward estimates, while the remaining funds - almost $1 billion - will come beyond that, with investment driven by a newly-created statutory body Housing Tasmania.
Mandated percentages for social housing
The Victorian Government recently abandoned plans to put a levy on new housing developments to fund social housing, but other proposals could be considered in Tasmania.
One of those is mandatory inclusionary zoning, in which a required percentage of new housing developments must be social housing.
No firm policy exists apart from in small areas of mainland cities, but Mission Australia and the Community Housing Industry Association encouraged Tasmania to take it up as part of its planning policies to "generate affordable housing at scale".
"The Tasmanian Government has already demonstrated a commitment to social and affordable housing through its 10-year affordable housing strategy and subsequent funding announcements," CHIA chief executive officer Wendy Hayhurst wrote.
"However, important as these initiatives are, the shortfalls in supply exceed what is currently planned for development."
Such a proposal would likely face opposition from the housing sector, however.
Tasmania executive director of the Housing Industry Association, Stuart Collins, said the cost to developers of adding social housing would likely be passed on to home buyers.
"Inclusionary zoning policies and affordable housing quotas add costs to an already over-taxed and over-regulated housing industry," he said.
"This in effect, further exacerbates housing affordability problems."
Policies to target available agricultural land
The government has already introduced an incentive to attempt to get the state's 5000 hectares of unused residential zoned land onto the market, but HIA Tasmania wants to see unused agricultural land also considered.
This could include changing the definition to only cover "prime" or "productive" agricultural land, and the remainder - such as sub-prime, or unfavourable land due to climatic conditions - could be considered for urban development.
Mr Collins wrote that unproductive agricultural land should not be "quarantined" from other uses.
"This land may be better served for other purposes with a rational such as rural and urban development opportunities where there is a strong business case," he wrote.
"The protection of high value agricultural land as opposed to all agricultural land will also create certainty about which agricultural land carries the highest protection."
High density hubs in the outer suburbs
The RACT wants all levels of government to actively encourage more higher density living in Tasmania - such as apartments - in outlying suburbs with good access to services, transport and community spaces.
Only small parts of Hobart come close to high density, while minimal medium density housing is present in the state's larger outlying suburbs like Glenorchy, Kings Meadows and Prospect.
RACT chief advocacy officer Garry Bailey said this could be achieved by using in-fill residential development near active transport hubs.
"The RACT supports the development of higher density hubs in existing outlying suburbs. These areas can also cater for the decentralisation of industries, services and attractions," he said.
By the time new planning policies are in place, there could also be far greater uptake of new technology such as autonomous vehicles.
Mr Bailey said national regulations would be completed by 2026, and the vehicles would "usher in a revolution in regional transport" in the decades ahead.
"That means Tasmania's planning policies will need to inform those strategies, the action plans that flow from them, and how they integrate into planning regimes," he said.
The government will now prepare its draft Tasmanian Planning Policies.
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