Sixty-year-old height rules, twenty-first century aircraf
Sydney's flight path height caps date back six decades. The Urban Developer reports on the push to review them and unlock well-located housing.
Intro:
The Urban Developer reports on growing industry pressure to review flight path height controls across the Sydney Basin. Conquest's Michael Akkawi argues the rules predate GPS-guided aircraft yet still govern how high developers can build near flight paths, and says lifting limits by even 10 to 30 metres in infill suburbs could unlock housing at a scale current modelling struggles to capture.
The article also points to the feasibility pressure: construction costs have roughly doubled in five years, so sites need more yield to stack up. And it highlights a governance gap: the state treats the issue as federal, tied to the Commonwealth's aviation safety framework, leaving no one clearly responsible for asking whether the rules still fit.
The piece notes there isn't yet a united industry front on the issue. HAAPA exists to provide one: independent, evidence-led, and with aviation safety as the starting point.
Related: PANS-OPS: the invisible ceiling over Sydney's skyline