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It’s easy to say densification is the solution to a housing crunch, but Sydney’s latest push illustrates how top-down planning can trip over local sentiment—and overwhelm its own goals. By allowing six‑story buildings near transit and earmarking hundreds of thousands of new units, officials are making a clear bet: proximity equals access. And yet, only 2 percent of these units are marked affordable. There’s a glaring disconnect when policies meant to broaden opportunity feel tone-deaf to what communities value: character, heritage, neighborhood scale. But even more interesting is the reaction: community groups pushing alternatives like “Our Fairer Future” suggest a shift toward context-sensitive models. They’re not anti-development—they’re pro-intentional growth. This tension between urgency and nuance, between density for its own sake and density for thoughtful expansion, will be a case study for other fast-growing cities balancing equity, design, and local buy-in. How Sydney navigates legal challenges and council pushback in the coming months could define whether densification is equitable—or just expedient.