YIMBY Hobart submission - draft Southern Tasmanian Regional Land Use Strategy

To whom it may concern,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the revised draft Southern Tasmanian Regional Land Use Strategy (STRLUS). YIMBY Hobart was established to advocate for:

1. Housing abundance: More housing of all types where people want to live.

   
   

2. A city for people at all ages and stages, of all means and abilities: Our city and suburbs should reflect the diversity of the community as a whole.

   
   

3. Better access for everyone: Being an active participant in our city should not rely on owning a car.

   
   

In recent years Southern Tasmania has experienced worsening housing affordability, rising congestion, and increased pressure on infrastructure and the natural environment. Despite this, much of the region’s recent development has occurred at the urban fringe, where it is more expensive to service, more exposed to natural hazards, and more likely to entrench car dependence.

This contribution builds on our submission on the State of Play report, which argued that the STRLUS should prioritise housing supply within existing urban areas rather than continued fringe expansion, with a focus on medium-density infill, activity centres, and locations well served by transport and services. It emphasised that consolidation is critical to affordability, infrastructure efficiency, environmental protection, and climate resilience. The submission also stressed that these outcomes will not occur without clear targets, accountability, and implementation mechanisms.

On this basis, YIMBY Hobart supports the overall direction of the draft Southern Tasmania Regional Land Use Strategy. As we noted in our submission on the state of play report, we do not believe the current strategy has effectively guided development in southern Tasmanian. We hope a refreshed strategy can improve on this record.

The draft contains a number of strong elements that should be retained, including that it:

• Prioritises urban consolidation over continued fringe expansion. Concentrating growth in existing activity centres, and transport corridors is the most efficient way to deliver housing, use infrastructure well, and protect natural landscapes.

  
  

• Recognises the need to protect environmental values while accommodating growth. Concentrating development within established areas reduces pressure on bushland and agricultural land and allows environmental outcomes to be improved within the urban footprint.

  
  

• Better aligns land use and transport. Locating growth near jobs, services, and public transport is essential if the region is to reduce car dependence and support more functional, connected communities.

  
  

• Takes a clearer position on natural hazard risk. Avoiding development in high bushfire and flood exposure areas reduces climate risk and must remain a core principle of the STRLUS.

  
  

• Acknowledges the scale of the housing challenge. The inclusion of growth and liveability targets, and the recognition that housing supply must be monitored over time, is a significant improvement on the previous strategy.

  
  

Seeing these important outcomes delivered will require a more deliberate approach to measuring and monitoring outcomes. The previous STRLUS set out broadly similar principles as those above, but did little to shape development. There was no clear way to measure whether consolidation was occurring, whether housing supply was being delivered in the right locations, or whether the strategy was succeeding at all.

If consolidation is the goal, it needs to be reflected in measurable expectations and tracked over time. Otherwise, there is no way to monitor success and no basis for adjusting planning settings if outcomes are not being achieved.

The draft strategy acknowledges the need to monitor housing supply and growth over time, but it needs to be more ambitious. It needs to set clear targets for housing delivery, with an emphasis on consolidation within existing urban areas and activity centres. Without this, the strategy risks becoming a statement of intent and nothing else.

YIMBY Hobart acknowledges and appreciates the work that has gone into preparing the draft strategy. It sets a much clearer direction than its predecessor and, if delivered, would go a long way to ensuring future development does not repeat the mistakes of the recent past.