In this past week, heights of city buildings have been discussed as The Daily Telegraph published visions of what Sydney's Central Business District and regional centres could appear in as little as two decades from now.
It envisions that Sydney will need to build towers double the height of the existing tallest buildings in the city to accommodate for future population growth and demand for commercial space.
This will be a huge subject of discussion because building significantly taller buildings would actually preserve existing low density neighbourhoods, as development would become more concentrated in fewer parts of the city. Restricting height limits could create more dilemmas and this would meaning zoning more low rise areas for high rise.
If we went back more than thirty years, the NSW Government wanted to restrict Sydney building height limits in 1987. Barrie Unsworth was premier and Bob Carr was the environment and planning minister. He was concerned that developers wanted buildings in excess of what was permitted but at the same time was also concerned about overshadowing of public parks and civic spaces.
One development that concerned him was Alan Bond's proposed Skytower at 2 Park street which I covered last year.
Below is an article from The Daily Mirror as published in November 1987.
Source: Farr, M. 1987. "Carr Cuts Skyline Down to Size for New Image". The Daily Mirror, November 3: 14-15.
Building height limits were based on the Sydney Strategic Plan of 1971, which was not as rigid as current policies are today.
In early 1995, building height limits for central Sydney were set to prevent overshadowing over public spaces and parks at a maximum of 235 metres. I have in a previous entry posted the article. Bob Carr did not impose the limit as at the time, as he was NSW Opposition Leader. He would be elected weeks after the plans were released. His idea certainly proved feasible at the time.
