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THE population of Marsden Park – Shanes Park has boomed.

The population in 2017 was just 2837, but within six years soared to 23,778, ABS figures show.

The NSW government planned the suburb as part of a priority growth area on the north west urban edge. 

“Planning for the development we’re seeing now occurred between 2005 and 2010,” explains Blacktown City Council city planning director, Peter Conroy.

“It was to facilitate and direct the expansion of metropolitan Sydney into two corridors – the North West corridor and the South West corridor.” 

CoreLogic May 2024 data shows the median home value for family-friendly Marsden Park – Shanes Park is $1.199 million, a 71% jump in five years.

Despite the population surge, major changes to city planning procedures were not required, Mr Conroy says.

“We’ve been at the front line of urban growth for 30 years, so we’ve got systems and processes that have evolved over time to deal with that ongoing level of growth. This is pretty much business as usual for us,” he says.

The council splits its planning approvals process in two parts: one focusing on small scale developments like single dwellings, and the other on bigger, more complex developments.

“With the big complex applications, there’s less of them, but they take longer to process,” Mr Conroy adds.

On average, a single dwelling development application takes an average 35 days for approval, while a larger, more complex application may take 200 days.

In the 2023-24 financial year to date, 700 development applications were approved, similar to 780 the previous financial year. Another 700 are forecast in the next year.

Infrastructure within the council’s responsibility – including local roads, parks and recreational facilities – is built as development occurs using developers’ contributions, Mr Conroy says.

The state funds other infrastructure including railways and main roads, schools and hospitals, but the council has no control over the timeline.

“There’ve been problems with the timeliness of infrastructure historically. The current government is having to catch up on schools,” Mr Conroy says.

While the current government recently announced investment in a new local hospital, and it and its predecessor have worked on upgrading a major thoroughfare, other roads have seen “no progress at all”, he says.

The infrastructure lag means locals must rely on private cars for transport.

“That means most households rely on two cars, and the roads are very congested, and it takes a long time to do things,” Mr Conroy says.

CoreLogic head of Australian research, Eliza Owen, says Marsden Park – Shanes Park’s growth has presumably been driven by the movement of people from inner Sydney.

“Home purchases in the Marsden Park – Shanes Park area were the kinds of house and land package deals that peaked in 2021, which would’ve coincided with the Home Builder Scheme as well, so it would’ve incentivised a lot of purchases,” she said.

“From a migration perspective, I’d anticipate migration has peaked because home sales have peaked.”