It has not got the infrastructure issue right, but the danger is that developers will reap the profit at the expense of real-world congestion and pollution.

There is no system in place to look at pressures within the city boundaries and outside them, in the Highlands as an example, and that includes matching fast rail with decentralised population growth for a win-win-win.

Sydney developers lead this “planning fiasco”.

Sympathetic Planning Ministers like Rob Stokes and Pru Goward upped then downed targets along Parramatta Road and elsewhere.

Hungry ambitions hit community outrage which equals dumped politics.

One example of many is Canterbury Racecourse.

It was not included in the Greater Sydney Commission’s District plan in November 2016, but was thrust forward by the owners.

On July 13, 2017, the Sydney Turf Club announced high-rises would be a “one-off opportunity to shore up the club’s future”- in a location that has no transit or road capacity for additional dense development.

Another is the incredible West Metro which was characterised by the Sydney Morning Herald as “10 billion and 10 years” too late – and that dollar figure has maybe tripled.

Development lobbies said it was overdue because the government had been enticing developers to build high-rises in Homebush.

So we have to spend $20 billion “there” and not “here” while “there” has cheaper and faster “local solutions” that would obviate the West Metro itself – from Ron Christie, Nick Greiner and this analyst.

The Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue said of the associated Parramatta to Olympic Park tram it would be a “potential windfall to local developers”.

It is another case of the GSC retro-fitting a “strategy” with a Big Buck budget to catch-up with capricious Ministerial brainsnaps.

Wilton (3000 going to 350,000?) and South Camden are in a parallel situation.

The Walker Corporation in its place, and Lady Mary Fairfax with Gerry Gleeson, were entitled to work to realise their investments; but the South West Rail Link does not follow the population corridors nor does it meet the main person flows in Sydney which are from the South West to the North West.

GSC has to “obey and serve” so its proposed “development compacts” will continue to slice up parts of Sydney to government/developer deals, without the holistic approach we need to implement if we are to care for our future citizens.

Robert Gibbons started urban studies at Sydney University in 1971 and has done major studies of Sydney, Chicago, world cities' performance indicators, regional infrastructure financing, and urban history.

He has published major pieces on the failure of trams in Sydney, on the "improvement generation" in Sydney, and has three books in readiness for publication, Thank God for the Plague, Sydney 1900 to 1912;  Sydney's Stumbles 1830 to 2018;  and Broken Democracy - deBairdising NSW.

He has been Exececutive Director Planning in NSW Department of Transport, General Manager of Newcastle City, director of AIUS NSW and advisor to several premiers and senior ministers.