Deputy Mayor of The Hills Shire Council Robyn Preston has spoken out on the current growth trends of senior housing projects, stating that projects being built along rural fringe areas need to be ‘reined in’.

Cr Preston put forward a motion on the 8th of August at a Hills Shire Council meeting to examine ways of supporting seniors housing developments in areas central to lifestyle amenities including retail, medical and transport facilities, whilst improving visual transition between seniors housing developments and larger lot sizes in The Hills’ urban fringes.

“What I’m calling for is a better way to manage the visual outlook of urban meets rural,” she said in the written motion, with accompanying examples of villages in Glenhaven and Round Corner and their imbalances in the way development stopped and the rural landscape started.

Her primary concern within the motion was the use of land at the urban/rural interface for seniors living, and researched information for Cr Preston’s motion said the State Environmental Planning Policy makes seniors housing permissible on urban zoned land and on land that adjoins urban zoned land in certain circumstances.

“There is a general land use policy that puts the highest densities in the village or town centres with a graduated scale back of densities as you move out from the centre,” Cr Preston wrote. “This policy is working in reverse and this kind of village expansion should not be occurring.”

The motion asked that the council seek a meeting with NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts to discuss closing a state planning loophole that allows developers of senior housing in rural zones on the fringe of urban areas to apply for a department- issued site compatibility certificate, effectively by-passing the council’s zoning processes.

It also asks that the council explores opportunities to create a “gradual visual transition” between rural activities and the denser housing at the urban fringe, and consider potential reforms to enable “greater integration of seniors with the broader community in fringe developments” - meaning creation of smaller sized lots adjacent to existing seniors housing in rural areas, to enable families to buy houses close to their parents and fill gaps between urban housing and larger rural homes on acreage.