Urban Growth Management in Australia A Tale of Three Cities

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Urban Growth Management in Australia A Tale of
Three Cities
Phil Hughes Stuart Niven RMLA Conference 2005
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Presentation outline

• Why manage urban growth?
• Overview of urban growth management responses ?
  Melbourne, Sydney and South-East Queensland
• Identify common strategic directions, key
  initiatives and major differences
• Examine infrastructure provision urban design
  partnerships and promotion and research and
  monitoring

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Why manage urban growth?

• Promote efficient use of urban land and services
• Reduce the cost of providing and maintaining
  infrastructure
• Reduce negative impacts on urban economies,
  communities and environment
• Promote positive impacts through well-planned and
  designed development

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Managing urban growth, Queensland
We must manage urban growth, not just react to
it. Uncontrolled urban growth can consume
valuable open spaces and farmlands, isolating
communities and making it difficult to provide
infrastructure and services. Growth management
does not equal no growth. It does not decide if
there will be growth, but how and where growth
happens. (Queensland Dept Premier Cabinet
2005)
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Benefits of metropolitan strategies

• Well-designed and implemented strategies can help
  prevent and/or correct market failures
• Guide development of infrastructure and community
  assets
• Improve policy coherence across governments
• Promote partnerships between different levels of
  government, business and the community
• Send clear signals about government priorities
  and desired outcomes for housing and
  infrastructure

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What has been happening in Australia?

• New metropolitan strategies
• Melbourne 2030 (October 2002)
• Canberra Spatial Plan (March 2004)
• SE Queensland Regional Plan (June 2005)
• Draft metropolitan strategies
• Sydney Metropolitan Region (from 2004)
• Perth - Network City (September 2004)
• Metropolitan Adelaide and Outer Metropolitan
  Region (April 2005)

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Melbourne
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Sydney Greater Metropolitan Region
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South-East Queensland
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Summary population and housing trends
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Common strategic directions

• Managing urban growth through compact cities
• Limiting greenfield developments to identified
  growth areas
• Promoting well-planned development in existing
  suburbs and land release areas
• Recognising regional linkages-connecting cities
• Focusing on place, liveability and identity
• Improving infrastructure, especially transport
• Enhancing employment and economic activity

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Common initiatives

• Legislated urban growth boundary (Melbourne) and
  urban footprint (SEQ)
• Focusing growth in activity centres
• Promoting transit cities/transit oriented
  development, networked cities and centres
• Increased investment in urban transport
• Developing new regional parks
• Explicitly linked to state planning systems and
  development approval processes
• Planning reform (Victoria and NSW)

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Melbourne 2030 ? an example
Melbourne 2030 Vision In the next 30 years,
Melbourne will grow by up to 1 million people and
will consolidate its reputation as one of the
most liveable, attractive and prosperous areas in
the world for residents, business and visitors.
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Melbourne 2030 (cont.)

• Not a blueprint or a 30 year investment plan
• A series of principles for making policies and to
  inform decisions over time
• A framework to assist State agencies to work
  together and a platform for state/local
  government partnership
• Guidance for industry and communities

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Melbourne 2030 (cont.)

• Planning for Sustainable Growth
• Key Principles
• Sustainability
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Partnership
• Key directions
• More compact city
• Better management of metro. growth
• A greener city
• Better transport links

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Some differences in approach

• Melbourne and SEQ ? a core metropolitan regional
  strategy ? many initiatives
• Melbourne legislated growth boundary ? difficult
  to amend with passage required through both
  Houses of Parliament
• NSW ? multiple strategies with a rolling series
  of actions and plans

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What is the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy?
April 2005, UDIA NSW The Minister has
consistently said that the document is not a plan
but a strategy. Now were told that Metro
Strategy is instead a series of plans, Were
told that the Minister does not want the strategy
to be a developers roadmap. Indeed there is no
map, for the Minister wants to unfurl elements
of the strategy in stages. So what precisely is
the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy? Is it a
strategy, a roadmap, an element, a series of
plans or just a series of announcements?
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Some differences in approach (cont.)

• SEQ ? strong linkages between the regional plan
  and infrastructure plan and budget processes
• Melbourne ? major urban design focus ? improving
  the quality of design and urban areas
• Melbourne and SEQ ? formal review after 5 years

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General conclusions

• Melbourne and SEQ approaches appear broadly
  consistent with good practice ? Sydney still
  waiting on full implementation
• A wide range of initiatives and responses are
  being used
• Any strategy will only be as good as its
  implementation ? and this requires sufficient
  leadership, capacity and resourcing

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A key risk

• The resignation or departure of key staff and
  loss of corporate memory is an ongoing risk
• For example, following the recent restructuring
  of the NSW Dept of Planning, the Urban
  Development Institute of Australia (NSW)
  expressed serious concern about NSW Government
  planning initiatives and the loss of senior
  staff (September 2005)

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Infrastructure and urban growth ? Important
questions

• How can government prioritise infrastructure
  investment to achieve the best outcomes?
• How to fund new infrastructure?
• What role for demand management?
• How to use the strengths of the private sector
  through public-private partnerships and private
  delivery?
• What are the linkages to metropolitan strategies?

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Infrastructure and urban growth ? Queensland
example

• The SEQ Infrastructure Plan and Program 2005-2026
  details all major infrastructure projects (around
  230)
• 32-55 B of investment over next 20 years
• Not a stand-alone infrastructure plan but a key
  component of the regional planning process
• Strong linkages to budget processes
• Integral to ensuring the regional plan delivers
  the intended outcomes

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Urban design

• How to improve the quality of urban design?
  (especially with increasing density)
• Why is urban design important?
• Support urban form and liveable communities
• Improve relationship of development to urban
  character
• Promote development that is accepted by the
  community

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Urban design (cont.)

• What is being done? Some examples ?
• State urban design units provide targeted advice,
  promote urban design networks and support
  exemplar projects
• Inquiry by design workshops
• Urban design guidelines inform decision-making eg
  in NSW and Victoria
• State Architects Office, Victoria
• Urban design research

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Partnerships

• Governments are using different approaches to
  partner local government in growth area planning
  and developing structure plans
• Different models used including development
  boards, advisory committees, place managers and
  priority development zones
• Public land development agencies have stimulated
  innovation in design/construction, and brought
  industry-wide improvements

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Promotion and communication

• Ongoing promotion and communication of the
  rationale for urban growth management is critical
• Explanation of what are the underlying problems
  and how will particular responses make a
  difference
• Why key initiatives will bring improvements to
  urban areas

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Promotion of Melbourne 2030

• In August 2005, the Property Council of Australia
  observed
• The Victorian Government needs to continue to
  promote the objectives of M2030, and explain why
  increasing density is so important. There has
  been a failure in part by Government to
  communicate M2030s policy of creating a more
  compact city, and the reasons behind this
  policy.
• Earlier, in mid-2004, the 2030 Reference Group
  made similar observations ? a major and
  well-resourced marketing campaign was needed

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Communication challenges! Imagine you are
involved with managing Sydneys growth At
breakfast, you open the newspaper 30 May 2005
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Research is essential

• Key areas for further research include
• Better understanding of the relationships between
  urban form and infrastructure
• Economic implications of different forms of urban
  growth ? costs and benefits
• Socio-economic drivers of urban growth
• Linkages between employment, occupation, job
  location and housing location
• Economics of alternative transport options
• Urban demography and housing trends

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Monitoring progress Urban Development Program
example

• Major initiative to implement Melbourne 2030
• Provides reliable annual information on land
  supply and demand
• Ensure minimum 15 year supply of residential land
  and industrial land

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Conclusions

• Metropolitan planning is having an Australian
  renaissance
• Essential components of a successful metropolitan
  strategy include ?
• Clear strategic directions
• A range of targeted initiatives/responses
• Effective linkages to infrastructure planning
  and funding
• Good urban design for all forms of new urban
  development

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Conclusions (cont.)

• Important hands-on role for government in
  providing appropriate research, information and
  advice
• Continual promotion, reporting on progress and
  explanation of the need for urban growth
  management
• Ultimately, implementation of the strategies and
  key initiatives will remain the critical test
• Sufficient leadership, capacity, information and
  resourcing will be vital

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Thank you