Planet earth is fast approaching seven billion inhabitants. Australia will soon be home to twenty three million people. They all need somewhere to live !
As part of the evolving process of meeting our future housing needs the Wollongong LEP will change to allow five story apartment blocks in suburbs adjacent to railway stations and transport hubs - and this will not please many people !
The economics of housing are fairly simple. We need to concentrate numbers where we have transport facilities and to make use of the existing water, power and sewer services - and the only way to do that is to go - up !
It is called the " vertical village ".
If we insist on the old system of ever expanding outwards we create urban sprawl - and create miles of new roads with a huge investment in servicing costs. At the same time, we destroy farmland and bring decreased living conditions to those forced to live in urban housing estates.
It will certainly be unsettling to many to find a change of housing style happening in their suburb, but then in the past change has been constant.
The quarter acre block is now a distant memory. Land sizes have reduced at the same time as houses have got bigger - and land use has changed from cottages to villas and town houses.
We live in an ever changing world. The past is a time now gone - and the future is about to burst upon us. There is no point in bemoaning change. We may not like it , but economics mean that the " vertical village " is here to stay.
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