Rezoning = private profit?! (Couple loses property fight after highway swallows $5.5 million dream) (www.smh.com.au)

submitted 2 months ago by rcbrk@lemmy.ml to c/australia@aussie.zone

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Tip of the iceberg when it comes to examining the corruption of land ownership in Australia. It's hardly talked about. The linked article doesn't even talk about it.

The public as a whole (and traditional owners) should be the only financial beneficiaries of rezoning.

I suspect private maximisation of rezoning profits is the reason behind why urban developments here are almost universally that awful single-story no-greenspace roof-to-roof packed suburban hellscape.

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[-] joao@aussie.zone 19 points 2 months ago

A pair of would-be developers with links to an international gold mining company have lost their legal fight for $5.5 million in compensation after a rural acreage they were land-banking near Coffs Harbour was swallowed up by the Pacific Highway upgrade.

Couldn't have started in a worse way if you wanted my simpathy.

[-] Speculater@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Land squatting and cock blocking public infrastructure for personal gain is pretty low on my sympathy list.

[-] silasmariner@programming.dev 14 points 2 months ago

I don't get it, am I meant to have sympathy for this couple? They speculated on the value of some land going up, it did, they thought they deserved more. Boo hoo.

[-] rcbrk@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I can never quite tell with articles sometimes..

Among many elements of the story that absolutely fail to raise sympathy:

[...] They planned to subdivide their block into 26 lots once the land was rezoned as residential, live on one block and drip-feed two or three others on to the market each year.

...just what we need -- a drip-feed of low-density housing.