Urban Planning Related News & Opinion
We bring you a hand picked selection of news and opinion articles relating to town, urban and regional planning. The content is mainly Australian, but sometimes we include articles are from other parts of the world which deal with 'big picture' topics and issues that we can all identify with. We hope you enjoy it.
20 August 2024
Would you send your child to school in a skyscraper? Vertical schools could revitalise our cities
When we think of what Australian schools look like, we probably think of large grounds with single or double storey buildings. They’re usually in suburban areas on relatively flat blocks. But there are less conventional ways to build schools. Imagine your child going to class in a building that was taller than it was wide, and right in the middle of your city’s central business district.
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Sydney’s largest public housing estate is being redeveloped, but not all these homes need to be demolished
The New South Wales government is forging ahead with renewal of the state’s largest public housing estate. Developer Stockland and three community housing providers are contracted to deliver the first stage nearly a decade after it was announced. Some 749 homes are to be demolished and replaced with more than 3,000 new apartments.
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What makes Brisbane 2032 different from Paris and the rest?
Brisbane is the first city required by its contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host a climate-positive games. This means the “the carbon savings they create will exceed the potential negative impacts of their operations”, the IOC says. It’s a major shift in how sustainable the games are expected to be.
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In Praise Of Sprawl
Urban growth restrictions are the real reason housing is too scarce and too dear, writes property industry researcher Rob Burgess.
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Supporting critical research with geospatial data
Geospatial research and analysis are critical in providing the evidence base required for policy and planning. With Australia facing challenges such as responding to climate change, facilitating energy transitions and delivering adequate housing and infrastructure for cities and regions undergoing demographic shifts, it’s critical that policy and planning decisions are informed by relevant research and analysis.
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The federal government wants to build 1.2 million homes. Could fewer car parks be part of the answer?
Urban planners are pushing for better parking policy across Australian cities. They say Australia has too many unused parking spots and building more is contributing to the country's housing crisis.
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Public transport in outer Melbourne suburbs like Melton fails to keep up with population boom
Public Transport Users Association former president Daniel Bowen says the lack of access to local bus routes is a common issue across Melbourne's fringe, including areas such as Wyndham Vale, Tarneit, Cranbourne, and Clyde.
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Vote shows community split over plan for AFL training facility in Rosny parklands
The Tasmanian government must have an AFL high performance centre built near the Hobart CBD to ensure the state's entry into the competition. But the location on parklands on the city's eastern shore has divided the community, with an elector poll giving a narrowly split result.
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What 30 years of satellite data shows about the growth of more than 1,550 cities around the world
Urban development research has previously used a similar method to determine how built environments change, but it has often been restricted to the past 10 years of available imagery. The new study is one of the first of its kind to offer a comprehensive look at how cities have changed over a 30-year period.
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Town planning program upskilling women
A new project aimed at upskilling women has been launched by TAFE NSW, in an effort to address the growing skills shortage facing the town planning sector.
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25 July 2024
SA Minister slams door on office block housing fix
Planning Minister Nick Champion says repurposing city office blocks into apartments is too expensive and impractical, calling adaptive reuse “the biggest cul-de-sac” in the housing debate.
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Plan to make Melbourne world’s best student city
Melbourne will look to become the world’s leading city for students under a new plan adopted by the City of Melbourne in July. Councillors unanimously endorsed the new plan at their July 9 Future Melbourne Committee (FMC) meeting, which boosts existing efforts to support the CBD’s international student community through 2025.
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Planning a bright future for Geelong
City of Greater Geelong has luanched an economic development plan which aims to create a more sustainable, innovative, resilient and future-focused economy that is based on circular economy principles and defines new trends.
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City of Sydney considering $640 million economic development strategy
New jobs for 200,000 people, extending transport connections, transitioning to net zero and creating a diverse, 24-hour economy are all part of a 10-year plan to keep Sydney at the forefront of the Australian economy.
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A new bill is proposing a human right to housing. How would this work?
There’s a new bill before federal parliament calling for housing to be considered a fundamental human right. Introduced by independent federal parliamentarians Kylea Tink and David Pocock, the bill would require the government to create a ten year National Housing and Homelessness Plan. One part of the bill states housing should be considered a fundamental human right for all Australians. Here’s how this would work.
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Why YIMBYs, NIMBYs, BIMBYs and YIGBYs all matter for democracy and our future cities
The right of everyone to have a say on development is at the heart of modern urban planning. But as homes become ever more expensive, questions are being asked about whether it is OK to oppose housing developments in cities. Battlelines are being drawn between so-called NIMBYs – people who say “Not In My Backyard” – and YIMBYs, who say “yes” to new housing in their neighbourhood.
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Not quite a street, not quite a road – why 'stroads' are disasters of urban planning, and how to fix them
Many major roads in large Australian cites are stroads. Think of Parramatta Road or Cremorne’s Military Road in Sydney, and City Road in Melbourne. In Brisbane, consider Ann Street and Wickham Street. The development of stroads is a reflection on an older way of thinking, which views all streets and roads as places for cars and trucks.
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How to ensure higher-density housing developments still have enough space for residents’ recreation needs
Growing populations and housing shortages are affecting cities worldwide, including in Australia. It’s driving them to adopt high-density development near public transport hubs instead of endless suburban sprawl on city fringes.
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Why Sydney's skyline is short compared to other cities and a history of tall buildings in the CBD
Sydney is world renowned for its architectural landmarks — but in one respect it falls short. While skyscrapers are not new to Sydney's skyline, the City of Sydney council is considering the addition of two new buildings that could reach new heights.
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Let there be night: digital billboards to be turned off to curb light pollution under Melbourne city proposal
Illuminated signs have increased nocturnal artificial light and are detrimental to the city’s liveability and sustainability, a review has found
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25 June 2024
Plucking numbers from the air: Victoria’s big build for housing relies on impossible targets
The Victorian government this week gave the state’s local councils a gargantuan task: solve the housing crisis by accelerating new housing. Each council now has a target for new housing to reach by 2051.
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Victoria is raising minimum rental standards – it’s good news for tenants and the environment
Following the lead of countries like New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Australian states and territories are moving slowly towards improving the basic quality and performance of rental housing. Victoria is leading the way in Australia. The state government this week proposed new minimum requirements for rental properties and rooming or boarding houses. These changes would be phased in from October 2025..
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Bad weather, hills and the dark deter cyclists, particularly women. So what can we do about it?
What’s stopping women from cycling? Our new research analysed more than 200 million bike-sharing trips in ten cities worldwide, including Brisbane, over a period of 14 years. We found that slopes, darkness and bad weather affect numbers of female cyclists more than male cyclists.
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Australia is building a million new homes - but we may not want to live in them
Young families can't afford to buy houses, so they are turning to apartment living, but we're not building apartments with family living in mind.
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Development is booming in Gosford but is the city ready for the forecast growth over the next 20 years?
While Gosford's skyline is filled with cranes and creeping high rises, many construction sites have ground to a halt amid a flurry of stop-work orders and companies going into voluntary administration.
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Victoria’s premier unveils new housing targets for construction of 2.5m new homes by 2051
Jacinta Allan reveals Geelong will be set highest target for new homes, with City of Melbourne and Melton second and third
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Premier seeks ‘innovative ideas’ for 20,000 homes near Melbourne’s CBD as seven skyscrapers approved for Box Hill
The Victorian government has begun the search for partners to redevelop a huge parcel of land near Melbourne’s CBD, as it approved the construction of seven high-rise apartment towers in the eastern suburbs.
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Built as ‘temporary’ wartime huts, owners are being forced to preserve these crumbling Brisbane homes
Council faces backlash over imposition of heritage protections on Moorooka houses, some of which have already been condemned
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Permits required for Brisbane landlords turning homes into short-term accommodation, Airbnbs
Brisbane landlords will soon need a council-approved permit before they can list their home for short-term accommodation, including Airbnb, the city's lord mayor has announced.
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4 June 2024
Thousands of people are moving into this area. Where’s the green space?
Thousands of people are about to move into new apartments in Macaulay, but they won’t have any green space to enjoy because the state government has spent years sitting on plans that would create new parkland.
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Rethinking roads as public spaces – what we can learn from Barcelona’s ‘superblock’ urban design
One city that has worked to reinvent the concept of public space is Barcelona. Over 30 years, the city has developed “superblocks” – neighbourhoods where traffic speeds are reduced and through-traffic is limited.
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Climate crisis - suburbs facing the greatest risk of bushfire, flooding
Billions of dollars worth of Australian properties face a high risk of bushfire or floods, which could upend people’s lives, push up insurance costs and put downward pressure on property values, new research shows.
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Labor’s new National Urban Policy is welcome. But will it be transformative?
In March 2021, then-Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese declared “cities policy has been one of the abiding passions of my time in public life”. He promised a new national urban policy framework if Labor was elected. That moment has (almost) arrived with the release of a draft National Urban Policy.
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Parts of Sydney to build thousands more new homes as part of NSW government's revised housing target
New housing targets have been issued for 43 LGAs within greater Sydney, with areas close to the city required to build thousands of new houses.
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As Queensland trials 50c public transport fares, experts say there are more ways to improve our commute
The pre-election trial will run for six months starting in August, and is aimed at easing congestion and cost of living pressures, and getting public transport usage back to pre-pandemic levels.
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Urban Expansion Widens Wealth Gap
Research from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning finds widening economic inequality either side of the "latte line" - the invisible boundary that divides Sydney between the more affluent north-east and the south-west. Capital cities in Australia are becoming more segregated along socioeconomic lines.
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Why building more won't make houses affordable
The road to better, cheaper housing starts in your neighbourhood. Professor Nicole Gurran from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning says governments around the world are searching for how to fix housing affordability, but the solutions will have to be local and community based.
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New directions in planning
Machine learning models for more sustainable and affordable housing in regional areas, assessing bushfire risk as well as consideration for disability, biodiversity and also a place for animals in urban residential settings present new perspectives on future town planning and the housing market.
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Lawns, real or fake, are on their way out — and it's a good thing
The typical Australian lawn is under threat but, as Grand Designs Transformations host Anthony Burke argues, that's actually a good thing.
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15 May 2024
White papers warn of potential urban planning problems ahead
Leading planning and geospatial figures are calling for a coordinated approach to digitising and streamlining Australia’s urban planning systems. The PlanTech Partnership led by FrontierSI with the Planning Institute of Australia, University of NSW and RMIT University has released two white papers on the transformative role of technology in improving the planning system and fortifying Australia’s path towards a climate-resilient future.
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How to Design Spaces for Human Connection
Building communities and cities to combat loneliness and foster connection.
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Is urban infill development the panacea for Australia’s housing crisis?
Urban infill development that can deliver affordable and liveable homes could be the solution for Australia’s rising housing crisis, says urban planning expert Mike Day.
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Planning policies and book bans: NSW councils clash with state
The past week has seen NSW councils clash with the state government, with one council voting to take the state to court over a development policy and another council threatened with the loss of library funding over an attempted book ban.
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Grim urban sprawl highlights the real future for Australian families
A photo of a quintessential Sydney suburb littered with dozens of new homes without a tree in sight has reignited debate over what exactly constitutes the Australian dream. The image, taken at Edmondson Park in the city’s southwest, shows a bland sprawl of modern houses with inches dividing them and a grand total of zero unique landmarks.
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City Futures Research Centre receives $1m to create state-of-the-art housing data lab
Complex cities require data-driven modelling. Amid a national housing crisis, the funding will facilitate a new data analytics lab equipped to assist policy makers with evidence-driven solutions.
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Housing density has surged across Australia's cities, yet home prices keep hitting fresh records
There is a battle going on between those who want virtually no planning controls and those keen on maintaining the status quo in our cities.
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No 'quick fix' to housing crisis warns RBA assistant governor Sarah Hunter
The federal government wants Australia to build 1.2 million new homes in the next five financial years.
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New Diploma Gives Future Of Planning Strong Start
In a first for NSW, budding planners will soon have a TAFE pathway into the planning profession with a new diploma open for enrolments.
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City of Sydney proposes planning rules to incentivise alternative housing
The City of Sydney has proposed a number of amendments to the Sydney Local Environment Plan that would encourage developers to create more build-to-rent and co-living housing types in central Sydney. Developers would be given 20 to 75 percent more floor space for build-to-rent developments, and 20 percent more floor space for co-living accommodation.
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17 April 2024
City planners love infill development. So why are cities struggling with it, and how can they do better?
Governments and planners have set infill development targets. However, these targets are not being met. Greenfield projects on undeveloped land continue to outpace infill development.
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More train and metro station precincts to be allowed high-density housing to help ease Sydney's housing crisis
More train and metro station precincts in Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter region have been earmarked for high-density development by the NSW state government under its Transport Orientated Development (TOD) policy, including in two areas prone to flooding.
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It's skaters vs developers as locals fight to stop a global skateboarding mecca being turned into retail hub
One of the world's most coveted urban skateboarding locations is facing an uncertain future, as Perth property developers plan to turn the site into a retail and commercial office space.
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‘Tone deaf’: Melbourne council criticised over plans to restore ‘heritage’ concrete roads
Historian supports preserving some of the interwar period roads, but Yimby activist criticises Boroondara council plan
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Artificial intelligence is changing the way we walk, garden, and drive in Australian cities
The way Australians drive, walk, plant trees and even sort rubbish could be managed through artificial intelligence (AI) in the future, according to the country's leading property and innovation experts.
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Rozelle Interchange traffic chaos warnings were ignored, NSW upper house inquiry told
Mayors in Sydney's inner west have told an inquiry their early warnings of Rozelle Interchange traffic chaos were ignored and the problems were now likely to remain for years.
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Sydney’s urban sprawl grew along rail lines similar to way cancer spreads, researchers say
Sydney is renowned for its sprawl. Its geographical size is on par with Mexico City (population 20 million), Paris (10.4 million) and Bangkok (14.6 million), but Sydney’s population of 5.3 million pales in comparison. Now researchers have developed a model of how it spread out ...
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‘Urban form’ and the housing crisis: Can streets and buildings make a neighbourhood more affordable?
As of 2007, most humans live in cities. Though this is a relatively recent trend, many of our settlements contain street, block, and building patterns that have developed over centuries. These patterns – which collectively make up what we call “urban form” – are far from a neutral backdrop: they influence who lives where, what businesses find footholds in which locations, and what makes some areas more diverse than others.
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Developers, Councillors Slam Shire’s Social Housing Levy
The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s endorsement of next steps for a draft strategy on social housing have drawn fire from developers and councillors. The council voted to move to the next stage, undertaking community consultation, of the process for the Affordable Housing Development Contributions Strategy.
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Climate-Change-Resilient Cities Need Leadership from Top
The lack of co-ordination between Australia’s different levels of government is a key barrier to achieving comprehensive and integrated climate change adaption strategies in Australian cities and towns, according to new research.
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22 March 2024
Can earth-covered houses protect us from bushfires? Even if they’re a solution, it’s not risk-free
As extreme fire weather becomes more common across ever larger areas of Australia, we need new options for living with the risk of bushfire. Underground or earth-sheltered housing is one possibility, but we have limited real-world evidence of how such homes perform in bushfires.
A broader question is whether we should allow more people to live in bushfire-prone areas.
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Get Office into City Fringes, says Time & Place
While this article is primarily about property investement, it talks about the need to be prepared to build offices out of the cities and along the fringe, because workers returning to the office were looking for hospitality and a lifestyle-focused office environment.
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Pressure on Housing Grows as Australia’s Population Surges
Australia's population grew by 2.5 per cent to 26.8 million people, in the year to 30 September 2023, an annual increase of 659,800 people according to the latest figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Victoria saw an average increase of 3700 per week, and NSW over 3500 per week.
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Indonesia isn’t the only country planning new cities. Why not Australia?
The announcement that President Joko Widodo’s government will move Indonesia’s capital to another location, due to the severity of human-induced degradation in Jakarta, highlights a key tension for cities today. In the face of increasingly unsustainable urban environments, do we retrofit existing cities, or relocate and build new cities to achieve greater sustainability?
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‘Investors are the problem’: Why denser housing may not be coming to a suburb near you
NSW Premier Chris Minns’ vision for Sydney’s “missing middle” to be filled with three-to-six-storey apartment blocks could already be in jeopardy, with developers warning the state’s strata title laws could mean it will not be feasible to buy in suburbs flagged for redevelopment.
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New plan to protect Melbourne’s agricultural areas
The Victorian Government has released a plan to protect Melbourne’s green wedge areas, to ensure that efforts to build more homes in established suburbs don’t come at the expense of productive agricultural land and community access to nature.
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Victoria’s Housing Statement: A critical explainer
The Andrews Government announced a major package of investment and reform on 20 September 2023 called Victoria’s Housing Statement. This explainer addresses the primary components of the Housing Statement to provide the public with clear advice on what is proposed, how the interventions are justified, and what they really mean.
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Planning underway for Australia's first 'agrihood' to merge homes, farming in Far North Queensland
They are all the rage in the United States and they could soon be coming to a neighbourhood near you. Agrihoods - agricultural neighbourhoods where food production and housing come together - are booming in the United States, and Australia's very first is in the works.
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Urban planners decry NIMBYs as residents oppose St Lucia housing development
Residents in St Lucia say a new housing development will reduce property values and make their neighbourhood worse to live in.
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11 March 2024
Homes on steroids: how Australia came to build some of the biggest houses on Earth
My family of four lives in a home that 90 years ago housed a family of 11. How have our ideas of enough changed over the decades?
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Australian cities hollow out as younger families move out and inner suburbs get older
Sydney could become a “city with no grandchildren”, the New South Wales Productivity Commission has warned, but analysis of census data shows similar trends in most big capital cities.
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Planning executives behind Sydney's sweeping housing reforms battle to keep their jobs
Planning staff behind NSW's housing strategy are fighting to keep their jobs as the Minns government looks at axing executive positions to deliver on an election promise.
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Report highlights demand for affordable housing
A new report by Homelessness NSW has underscored the importance of government action to increase the supply of homes to the state, particularly social and affordable housing.
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Australia’s Rental Affordability Crashes to Record Low
According to the PropTrack Rental Affordability Index, which analyses rental affordability across different household income distributions and locations, affordability is now at its worst level since the index began, driven by the surge in rent prices following the pandemic.
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Affordable Housing Measures ‘Will Drive Away Investment’ from Victoria
Property Council of Australia Victorian executive director Cath Evans says “Penalties and disincentives will do nothing but push private capital out of Melbourne to other Australian and international cities, who use evidence-based approaches to drive down the cost of housing” .
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State Social Housing Project Opens Doors at Brighton
The latest project to be completed as part of the Victorian Government’s Ground Lease Model program has opened its doors at Melbourne’s Brighton.
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Sweltering Cities panel warns Brisbane heatwaves will worsen
Urban planners say the design of Brisbane traps heat and humidity in the inner city, where the temperature of concrete can exceed 70 degrees Celsius.
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Bradfield City Centre Master Plan released
The draft Bradfield City Centre Master Plan has been released for community feedback, establishing a framework for the new 114-hectare city and representing major progress in one of Australia’s biggest economic development projects, according to the NSW government.
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Why don’t our cities cope with heavy rain?
A Principal Research Scientist with the CSIRO's Cities, Consumers and Resources Team, says it is essential we plan our cities to better cope with extreme events such as heat, storms, wind and flooding. This is critically important to reduce health-risks and danger to lives, minimise property loss, and reduce any negative effects on the natural environment.
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5 February 2024
The YIMBY movement is spreading around the world. What does it mean for Australia's housing crisis?
Australia's housing problems show no sign of abating, and the political capital of YIMBYism looks set to grow. How that political capital is expended will have important implications for housing reform and urban life.
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Parking apps are sweeping Australia's cities. Here's what you may not know about them.
Parking, and the enormous amount of space we cede to it, is undergoing two revolutions. The first is the rise of parking apps. The second is a reckoning with whether we really need so much parking, and what else we could do with all that space.
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Home truths: TV's Kevin McCloud thinks Australia should stop building such big houses
The Grand Designs presenter on how the yimby mantra and infill development can solve the housing shortage.
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Councils turn to artificial intelligence to tackle 'frustrating' development approval wait times
Builders have reported year-long delays on individual projects and said the hold-ups were hampering the delivery of new homes and increasing costs.
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Transport inequity challenges south-west Sydney residents as young people worry about car dependence
Young people say a "flaky" train system and limited bus timetable in Western Sydney leave them reliant on driving, as a state parliamentary inquiry considers the current and future needs of public transport in the booming region.
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Creative bureaucracy is possible. Here are 3 things cities do to foster innovative local government
Heavyweight international players from the OECD to Bloomberg Philanthropies and the United Nations have prescribed "innovation" as a solution for the many challenges city governments face. But what do these innovations involve? Who do they involve? How do they work? Indeed, do they work? And what are the implications for city government?.
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How one Australian state is tackling the housing crisis as rental vacancies dry up
The Queensland government will encourage developers to build more homes in metropolitan areas by relieving $350 million in infrastructure charges. Premier Steven Miles and Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon on Saturday vowed to address the state's housing shortage by also releasing more state-owned land for social and affordable homes.
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Smart Garbage Trucks Help With Street Maintenance
If you've ever had trouble with a footpath, bus stop, or other piece of urban infrastructure, you probably know the hassles of dealing with a local council. It can be incredibly difficult just to track down the right avenue to report issues, let alone get them sorted in a timely fashion. In the suburban streets of one Australian city, though, that's changing somewhat. New smart garbage trucks are becoming instruments of infrastructure surveillance, serving a dual purpose that could reshape urban management.
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Residents sue the Victorian government over public housing demolition plans
Residents from Melbourne's public housing towers have launched legal action to stop the Victorian Government demolishing their homes, as part of Labor's signature housing policy.
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NSW government survey finds more than half of newly registered apartments have had at least one serious defect
As Australia grapples with housing affordability, New South Wales is at the forefront of another crisis sweeping new builds.
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19th January 2024
‘It’s slipped off the radar’: why are there fewer street trees in regional towns across Australia?
Beyond the tree-lined high streets, many regional towns are lacking tree cover and experts say the reliance on cars could be to blame.
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Westconnex: a $20bn money pit or a bold plan for Sydney’s future? Experts remain divided
Drivers can now travel from the Blue Mountains to the Sydney Harbour Bridge without passing a traffic light, but at what cost?
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Brisbane's deputy mayor rails against 'radical' Greens proposal to reduce car dependency
Brisbane could be harder for drivers but easier for cyclists and pedestrians under a sweeping proposal by the Greens to "de-prioritise" cars in favour of people.
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This researcher analysed 12 ways cities are trying to cut traffic. A congestion tax worked best
What can Australia learn from other cities reducing CBD traffic? It's about disincentives for drivers and incentives for those who choose other means of getting around.
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The YIMBY movement is spreading around the world. What does it mean for Australia’s housing crisis?
Where did YIMBYism come from? Who are the YIMBYs? How are they reshaping the politics of housing in the 21st century?
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Healthy cities aren’t a question of boring or exciting buildings but about creating better public space
Quite how a city both caters to its residents’ needs and sustains its economy is an enduring debate. The tension is between innovation aimed at boosting investment (in this instance, in the entertainment industry) and what urban geographer Colin McFarlne terms the “right to citylife”.
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How the retailing contest between CBDs, shopping centres and online will reshape our cities
The competition between bricks-and-mortar retailers in CBDs, suburban shopping centres and online retailers peaks each year with the onset of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in late November, closely followed by the Christmas shopping season and New Year sales. Whatever big changes come next – in terms of what we buy, where and how – will have implications well beyond the retail sector. The structure and function of cities, plus our relationship with the city and retail spaces, are likely to change.
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Urban heat mapping to future-proof Hobart as a comfortable place to be
Everyone knows that on a hot day you feel cooler standing in the shade of a tree. But just how much of a difference does it make? And how does one tree, or 20, make a difference for a whole city?
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How rising sea levels will affect our coastal cities and towns
With over 250 million people now living on land less than 2m above sea level, most in Asia, it is imperative we do everything we can to limit future sea-level rise.
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Delivery has a pollution problem. These cities are working to address it.
A new initiative will help cities test innovative startup and corporate solutions in a bid to curb ballooning emissions, primarily from trucks.
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14 Dec 2023
‘It will get better’: NSW government to fix confusing Rozelle Interchange signs after traffic chaos
The New South Wales premier has vowed to fix confusing signs that caused traffic chaos for thousands of Sydney commuters as they attempted to navigate the new Rozelle Interchange for the first time.
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Urban planning has long ignored women’s experiences. Here are 5 ways we can make our cities safer
Women consistently raise concerns about their safety when moving through their cities and communities. Women often experience harassment in the street, which can lead them to avoid areas and adjust their lifestyles to feel safe. Based on research, here are five ways we can make cities safer for women.
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This little town is being rezoned to grow 13 times bigger but there's still no infrastructure plan
The NSW government has fast-tracked a development in Appin, south-west of Sydney, that it says will help address the state's housing crisis. But local residents fear they will be left stranded without infrastructure.
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Plan for hundreds of thousands of new homes in Melbourne has some experts confused
In Melbourne the Victorian state government has promised hundreds of thousands of homes will be built in a decade, but experts are unsure how that will be achieved.
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AI system found to outperform humans in creating urban planning designs
A team of urban planners and information scientists at Tsinghua University in China has found that an AI-based urban planning system was able to outperform human experts in creating urban planning designs. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Computational Science, the group describes the factors that were used in describing the ideal urban plan and how well their AI did when tested.
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Chatbot Serves as Prototype for AI in City Planning and Zoning
A prototype City Planning Chatbot uses AI to answer public questions on zoning and city planning in Denver. Although not endorsed by the City, the experiment demonstrates the potential power of AI to provide accurate planning and zoning answers.
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More than half a million homes in Australia's three biggest cities could house granny flats, report finds
New analysis across Australia's three biggest cities has found more than 650,000 residential properties with the potential to build a granny flat. Advocates say it could help ease pressure from historic low vacancy rates of less than 1 per cent, which have left people scrambling for affordable rentals.
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Renters in every capital city worse off as affordability in the regions deteriorates, Rental Affordability Index shows
Across the country, a single person on JobSeeker now has to spend more than their entire income — or 106 per cent — to rent a median one-bedroom home, the report says.
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NSW government accidentally publishes list of suburbs targeted for high-density housing
The hotly anticipated but unfinished document was mistakenly posted on the Department of Planning website on Tuesday, but deleted shortly after. The document all but confirms the Sydney Metro West project will be going ahead, before the government has been able to release its review.
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The 220-kilometre city: Why Western Australia is giving up on infill
As Perth grapples with the biggest housing supply crisis it has ever faced, planning ideologies from all corners of the property sector are colliding daily over what should Perth look like in the future – and how much further it should stretch.
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3rd October 2023
Can’t find a parking spot? Meet the planner who wants to make it much harder
Australian cities have an abundance of affordable, subsidised and often free homes – but only for cars. The parking expert David Mepham is part of a chorus of urban planners around the world who say the land devoted to vehicles contributes significantly to the housing affordability crisis.
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Build-to-rent housing is gaining momentum, so will it help ease the rental crisis?
As the housing crisis persists and home ownership slips beyond the reach of many Australians, a new model of housing known as build-to-rent is increasingly being touted as part of the solution. It may be coming to your neighbourhood soon — there are already more than 60 build-to-rent projects either planned or in construction across the country, delivering almost 20,000 new dwellings, according to Ernst & Young.
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How do we get urban density ‘just right’? The Goldilocks quest for the ‘missing middle’
Debates over densities in our cities divide between advocates of low-rise detached housing and supporters of higher-density towers. Both offer little diversity. In Australian cities, but also in North America, we see a clear contrast between ground-scraping suburbs and clusters of CBD skyscrapers.
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As Australia's electric vehicle market expands 'exponentially', is our EV infrastructure ready for the challenge?
The future of driving around the world is undoubtedly electric, according to everyone from federal, state and local governments to academics, as well as car manufacturers and fuel companies. Yet industry lobby group the Electric Vehicle Council says less than 5 per cent of vehicles on Australian roads are electric, compared to a global average in comparable countries of about 15 per cent.
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Planning laws protect people. A poorly regulated rush to boost housing supply will cost us all
The housing crisis is firmly on the Australian policy agenda. Governments see a rapid increase in supply as the main solution. The importance of supply is not disputed. But more housing alone isn’t enough: new housing must be provided in ways that do not widen the gap between the “haves and the have-nots”..
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Remote work marks the path to a greener future
According to a recent report, 12.7% of full-time employees in the US are now working from home, with another 28.2% enjoying a mix of home and office work. This shift is far from temporary – it’s expected to nearly triple compared to what it was before the pandemic. But what does all this mean for our cities and our planet?
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‘Bottom of the food chain’: e-scooter riders push for reimagining of Australia’s bike lanes
‘Bottom of the food chain’: e-scooter riders push for reimagining of Australia’s bike lanes. A new transport hierarchy is being negotiated in our cities, leading to friction on footpaths and bickering in bike lanes. Is there a better way?
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The humble spotted gum is a world class urban tree. Here’s why
As climate change intensifies, city planners are looking for resilient street trees able to provide cooling shade in a hotter climate. They could do a lot worse than choosing C. maculata.
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NSW Gov tightens short-term rental regulations
The New South Wales Government is tightening its cap on non-hosted short-term rental accommodation (STRA), following a planning proposal from Byron Shire Council that encourages properties to return to the long-term rental market. In response to the Independent Planning Commission’s (IPC) recommendation, the cap will be tightened on some STRA from 180 days to 60 days per 365-day period.
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A short-stay levy and 800,000 new homes: how Victoria plans to ease the housing crisis
Labor’s housing statement pledges to speed up approval times, rebuild ageing towers and unlock land in established suburbs. Here’s what we know so far
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30th August 2023
Chief of NSW’s largest council wants developer tax to build swimming pools and libraries
The chief executive of New South Wales’ largest council is calling for a new tax on developers to pay for social infrastructure such as swimming pools, warning the alternative would be to raise rates in urban fringe communities by 40%.
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Queensland government considers 171 council properties for affordable housing projects
A Queensland council given a "very hasty request" from the state government last year to nominate council-owned sites for affordable housing projects just days before the Premier's Housing Summit has withdrawn the five sites it put forward following strong public backlash.
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Back yard blitz: are Australia’s heritage laws thwarting housing density?
Urban density advocates say heritage laws are being weaponised to constrain development at a time of housing crisis, but experts say the two can live side by side.
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Hepburn Shire Council dismayed by compensation offers for yet-to-be-approved transmission project
A central Victorian council in the path of a proposed high-voltage transmission line says it is "disturbed" by developments in the project.
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Meet Melton, officially part of Melbourne, but crying out for city services
Incorporating the north-western outlier made Melbourne technically the biggest city in Australia. But residents say they are still treated as country cousins when it comes to funding health and transport.
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Hundreds of extra public, affordable homes close to Sydney CBD proposed
Nearly 500 extra social and affordable homes will be built close to Sydney's CBD under revised plans for the rejuvenation of one of Australia's biggest social housing estates.
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How artificial intelligence can aid urban development
Artificial intelligence can be a game-changer in the mission of modernizing urban development, especially when it comes to transportation infrastructure
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Tasmanian government proposes reform to allow bypassing of councillor planning approval process
A proposal to reform Tasmania's planning laws, allowing big developments to bypass councils, could result in more social housing, while projects like an AFL training facility may also be considered.
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Kerbside ferns and vertical gardens: transforming Melbourne’s ‘grotty’ laneways into urban oases
A council greening trial is drawing locals and tourists alike to the city’s neglected side streets.
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City of Sydney wants to ban gas in new builds – can it do it and is it worth it?
The debate over banning gas has heated up again in New South Wales after the city of Sydney voted to begin the process of electrifying new homes and some businesses.
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14th August 2023
The $44m plan to revive Sydney’s Haymarket into a food and cultural hotspot
The City of Sydney wants the southern end of the CBD to celebrate Chinese, Thai and Korean cultures in a neon light-filled dining and entertainment destination.
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Noisy NIMBYs to be silenced on housing projects
Neighbours are set to be blocked from lodging local government planning objections against medium-density housing projects, provided that developers agree to include a proportion of affordable homes in their proposals.
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Draft plan for Yarra River upgrade released
A draft Master Plan for the City of Melbourne’s Greenline Project has been released, marking another major milestone for the city-shaping transformation of the Yarra River – Birrarung. At the 15 August Future Melbourne Committee meeting, councillors will consider a consultation process for the draft Master Plan – inviting community members and stakeholders to have their say on the proposed vision for the river’s north bank.
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Queensland's coastal regions from Noosa to Gold Coast set to grow by 600,000 – how will they cope?
The state government's new draft South East Queensland Regional Plan forecasts 900,000 new homes will be needed by 2046.
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Brisbane council apologises after cryptic letters about acquisitions send residents into a panic
The cryptic letter was sent to nearly 15,000 residents informing them that a proposed "park acquisition and embellishment" would "affect" their properties.
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Concern, confusion over promised Western Rail Plan for regional Victoria train services
Regional commuters say busy carriages and long wait times are a real problem.
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How Melbourne’s skyscraper car parks could be transformed into urban farms
The architects of Melbourne’s tallest building, Australia 108, have created designs envisioning the transformation of the building’s 10 levels of car parking into space for a vertical farm, beehives, water collection and storage, pet care, podcast studios, co-working and education.
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Five NSW suburbs in line for radical development
Thousands of homes – including many social and affordable ones – will be fast tracked across one state after a contentious pilot program.
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Could empty office spaces in Sydney's city centre help ease the housing crisis?
New data shows persistently high office vacancy rates in Sydney's city centre, prompting some to question whether empty spaces could be converted to provide much needed housing.
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Huntly residents asked to vote if they want mail delivered to homes in Australia Post poll
The town is one of Bendigo's growth corridors and is home to several housing estates, with the City of Greater Bendigo expecting 2,100 new homes to be built in Huntly by 2036. You get NBN, you get electricity, you get gas, you get telephone, but you don't get mail.
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3rd August, 2023
Queensland deputy premier reveals master plan for 900,000 new houses in state's south east
South-east Queensland councils will be required to amend their planning schemes to allow for the development of almost 900,000 new homes by 2046 under the state government's proposed plan for the region.
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Port Fairy school enrolments drop as rising house prices force families out of tourist town
Ballooning house prices and a lack of rentals have already wreaked havoc on the pubs and restaurants of the south-west Victorian tourist town Port Fairy.
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No parking: ‘parklets’ to improve inner-Sydney streetscapes for residents, urbanists say
Kerbs across Sydney could become pop-up markets, art exhibition spaces, herb gardens and pocket parks if governments chose to build on Covid-era rule changes that transformed the way Australians use streets.
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Cities are central to our future – they have the power to make, or break, society’s advances
The great paradox of modern globalisation is that declining friction in the movement of people, goods and information has made where you live more important than ever.
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Premier questioned over City of Sydney development exemption
NSW Premier Chris Minns is facing calls to explain why the City of Sydney council will be exempt from his government’s development reforms, despite promising to share housing density targets equitably.
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Minns government on cusp of rewriting Sydney housing density reforms
A bid by NSW Premier Chris Minns to tackle the state’s housing crisis has been dealt a blow, with the new government on the cusp of rewriting a key reform after industry figures branded it “impractical and unfeasible”.
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Tackling population growth ‘one nurse in an affordable unit’ at a time
Planners say incorporating “gentle density” in Brisbane and other major urban centres, giving key missing middle-income workers the chance to live closer to where they work, is the way forward.
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Residents’ gripes over noise, parties, near-nudity and litter prompt Airbnb crackdown debate
Residents’ complaints about raging parties, noise at all hours and overflowing bins have prompted Port Phillip Council to consider tighter controls on Airbnb and short-stay accommodation.
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Social spaces: using data to inform urban design
The City of Melbourne installed the data collecting Social Spaces chair on a median strip one block from Melbourne’s famous Lygon St shopping and dining district. The pilot project uses sensor data and insights to explore how public spaces can meet the needs and improve the experiences of the people who live, work, and visit the area.
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Melbourne’s most liveable city status at stake as Andrews gears up for planning overhaul
If you believe the forecasts, Melbourne will be a vastly changed place in the not-too-distant future. For a start, the city is expected to grow by about 1 million people over the next 10 years.
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17th July 2023
Yes in my back yard! Sydney and Melbourne activists demand ‘soft density’ to ease housing crisis
Disparate groups frustrated by lack of affordable properties are taking the fight to Nimbys as they campaign to relax planning curbs and reinvigorate suburbs.
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The plan for trams to turn Broadway into Sydney’s ‘green gateway’
The central business district’s light rail network would extend south along Broadway under a push by the City of Sydney council to turn the traffic-choked road into a “green gateway” lined with trees and bike paths.
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The demonisation of nimbyism is unhelpful – it’s a natural response to decades of Melbourne’s planning failures
Rather than rushing to condemn communities for engaging with the planning system perhaps the antidote to anti-growth attitudes is quality development.
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Houses and high-rises (and nothing in between): why land zoning hasn’t been effective for improving urban density
For almost a century, zoning has been the key tool used by urban planners to influence how our cities grow and change. Our newly published research looked at whether zoning is effective at guiding new urban growth patterns.
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Minister intervenes on ‘Great Wall of Frankston’
At least two major high-rise developments along Frankston’s foreshore have been thrown into doubt after a surprise last-minute intervention by the state’s planning minister, a move celebrated by community activists and condemned by one property developer.
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Will Australian Councils do this? Right-to-charge laws bring the promise of EVs to apartments, condos and rentals
Several US states have legislated to require that all parking spots at new homes and multiunit dwellings be wired so they’re ready for EV chargers to be installed.
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By gutting the Greater Cities Commission, the NSW government is setting up itself and Sydney for failure
The Minns government’s approach to planning Sydney is troubling in terms of direction and substance. The announcement that it will “fold” the Greater Cities Commission back into the Department of Planning raises several red flags for planning in New South Wales.
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Turning the housing crisis around: how a circular economy can give us affordable, sustainable homes
Households across Australia are struggling with soaring energy and housing costs and a lack of housing options. Mixed with a climate crisis, economic volatility and social inequality, it’s a potent set of policy problems. Australia needs a circuit-breaker – a bold national project to tackle the climate crisis and support households by shifting to a more sustainable housing industry.
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Bold and innovative planning is delivering Australia's newest city
Academics from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning look into the Western Parkland Development and while acknowledging it is at the forefront of urban and infrastructure governance, their research identifies a range of concerns, including public consultation, project funding, environmental and social equity issues.
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NSW govt funds councils $25k to train planners
Grants totalling $25,000 are on offer for rural and regional councils to fund planning cadetships in a move by the NSW government to address skills shortages and cut a backlog in development applications.
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2nd May 2023
Living with density: will Australia’s housing crisis finally change the way its cities work?
Experts agree medium – and high-density development in established suburbs is an essential part of making housing more affordable. But the opposition from existing home owners is fierce.
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Development group told to scale back inner-Melbourne social housing project amid affordable rental crisis
The head of a not-for-profit housing group says he is concerned a Melbourne council is pushing back on developments amid Australia's rental housing affordability crisis.
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What desire paths can tell us about how to design safer, better public spaces
A desire line, or desire path, is an unplanned trail that forms as a result of traffic, either by humans or other animals, and often veers away from conventional paths.
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Rising prices, building code changes contribute to slump in new home builds in Queensland
Across Queensland prospective home owners are feeling the pinch of rising interest rates, higher building costs and labour shortages. Nowhere has this been felt more acutely than in North Queensland, which has seen a 60 per cent drop in new home builds, according to recent data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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‘It is crucial that we maintain the institution of the corner shop’
New state laws designed to make it easier to open businesses have prompted warnings that large retailers, hotels, motels and function centres will overrun suburban shopping strips and kill off corner stores.
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‘The best cities in the world aren’t created by chance’
Within two decades, the number of workers in the Brisbane CBD is expected to double to 570,000. By 2041, more than 470,000 people will live there. But “the best cities in the world aren’t created by chance”, admits Deputy Mayor Krista Adams, who describes the city’s new Inner-City Strategy released today as a “blueprint to guide the inner-city’s growth”, as the Brisbane City Council identifies urgent planning is needed in “priority precincts”.
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Sydney council faces developer backlash over plan to slash parking spaces
Plans to scale back the number of parking spots in new apartment buildings along public transport routes in Sydney’s inner north are stoking tensions between the local council and developer groups.
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SA 'compromised’: Premier warns unis over lack of planning degrees
Premier Peter Malinauskas has told the state’s three universities they must fix the lack of undergraduate urban planning degrees in South Australia, warning skills shortages could threaten his government’s “bold vision” for Adelaide’s future.
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Engie plans to fill Hazelwood coal mine with water in billion-dollar rehabilitation project
The owner of the former Hazelwood coal mine in Victoria's Latrobe Valley expects to spend about $1 billion filling it with water, but a conservation group says it has serious concerns about the plan.
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Geelong development overhaul hopes to inject heartbeat into city that 'barely has a pulse'
A Geelong ratepayers group says Victoria's second-biggest city must not be allowed to become a "mini-Melbourne", after the state government unveiled a 30-year vision for the regional hub.
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3rd April 2023
Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop - a Big Build or a Big Bet?
The idea of improving public transport access to middle urban activity clusters has appeal, as a way of supporting their growth potential. And the Victorian Government’s Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), part of its Big Build program, is intended to play this role. Better bus networks for fairer suburbs can cut emissions. But this solution is arguably too big for purpose.
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Future-Proofing Buildings with Flexible Design
In the new city centre of Rotterdam sits a building much like any other in the Dutch port city. People walk past it without much thought—it is, after all, a post-war building. But this particular post-war building is an example of something that might help developers weather uncertain markets and financial crises.
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People Are Sharing The 50 Best Examples Of ‘Urban Planning’ They’ve Seen
Cities may have loads of opportunities and energy but have also been linked to a variety of issues affecting human well-being. Traffic noise, commutes, and pollution all end up affecting our stress levels and even our sleeping habits. City planners have the responsibility to ensure that we don’t all go crazy just living our lives. As awareness about urban development grows, different online groups have formed that are devoted to showcasing the best designs or shaming the worst.
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How we can cool our cities with heat mitigation in a warming world
Everyone can think of a hot part of town where the sun shines brighter and there's no shade. There reason usually given is there's no budget, or room, for shade. Could heat mitigation and cooling be integrated further into planning and development? Advocates think so.
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Paris votes on banning e-scooters for hire amid debate about environmental credentials, road traffic dangers
Scooter critics say the machines are particularly dangerous in the hands of tourists who do not know how to navigate Paris's frenetic, honk-honk, get-out-of-my-way traffic and the many users who flout the rules, and risk fines, by riding two to a scooter and by mounting sidewalks, sometimes barrelling through pedestrians.
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SA Premier confronted by protesters opposed to urban development on Adelaide parklands
Protesters opposed to government projects encroaching on Adelaide's green space have taken their concerns directly to the South Australian Premier, heckling him as he arrived at a public function.
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Perth councils vote to require development application for tall tree removal
In what has been described as a "watershed moment," two inner-suburban Perth councils have voted to protect trees on private properties and preserve the city's urban canopy.
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Does Perth's future hold urban infill and better public transportation or more suburban sprawl?
There's a consumer preference for living in areas next to the beach and so we see a lot of young households and first homebuyers in particular looking at land that is further out but located close to key amenities like the beach. There's a range of problems associated with that, a lot of the costs associated with this type of type of suburban living are hidden.
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Would you swap parking spaces for more trees on your street? These residents did
In a time when off-street parking is more valuable than ever, one group of residents in Hobart has taken the unconventional step of giving up parking spaces — to make room for more greenery.
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Court rules in favour of South West Rocks 'zombie DA' residential development going ahead
The NSW Land and Environment Court has ruled in favour of a residential project on the Mid North Coast based on a so-called "zombie" development application lodged 30 years ago.
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16th March 2023
Build ’em up: High-rise plan would transform South Brisbane
Residents with “selfish” NIMBY attitudes need to let go and accept sensible new housing options, an urban planning expert says, as Brisbane mulls introducing high-rises at South Brisbane.
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Refurbishment plans for Barangaroo Cutaway go on display in face of backlash
Plans to turn the cavernous concrete shell of the Cutaway at Barangaroo into an exhibition hall have quietly gone on public exhibition as the Perrottet government presses ahead with its vision for the subterranean space without a national Indigenous centre despite criticism from Aboriginal leaders.
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A place for life and death as Melbourne plans its biggest new cemetery in 100 years
Melbourne's planners have earmarked 128-hectares of land on the city's western fringe, which they hope will provide enough burial and cremation space for the next 150 years of population growth.
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After railways were abandoned en masse, former train routes were recognised as a 'scarce resource'
Though the rail heyday has long passed, communities all over the world have maintained a connection with its physical remnants — and experts say the practice will play an important role into the future.
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Melbourne CBD parking set for overhaul
Simplified signage, changes to loading zones and more consistent layouts and durations for parking spaces are among changes proposed by the City of Melbourne as part of a major CBD revamp hoped to ease congestion.
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The 'tree house' design that could lead to more greenery in Australia's drying suburbs
A new subdivision described as an "adult tree house" crossed with "Noah's Ark" is hoped to become a blueprint for developing property without razing the land of all its trees.
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Droughty Point development close to Hobart CBD that could house 2,500 homes knocked back by council
A housing development on Hobart's eastern shore for 2,500 homes, described by council as "the most significant development in Australia", has hit a major hurdle but could still proceed with help from the state's planning minister.
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Sydney’s air pollution has been officially deemed unsafe for residents by WHO
A new, long-term government study has been released this month, detailing just how dire the level of air quality in Sydney has reached and it’s worse than we thought.
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UK professor behind NSW fast rail strategy criticises Coalition for dropping plan
The expert behind the New South Wales government’s fast rail strategy has warned that a landmark policy to spread population growth outside Sydney in coming decades is destined to fail amid revelations the Coalition has shelved plans to build a dedicated fast rail system.
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6th March 2023
A new 'veloway' is welcome news for Melbourne's cyclists. But will it be safer for women?
Female cyclists say they should have been consulted about the design of a bike track which is part of the Victorian government's West Gate Tunnel project.
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'Fickle' planning laws blamed for Victorian community's five-year fight against proposed abalone farm
For residents in Portland's Dutton Way, an "exhausting" battle against the construction of an aquaculture facility near their homes may finally be coming to an end. But an expert in planning law says the process shouldn't have taken so long.
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Push for improved building standards as increased risk of extreme weather events wreaks havoc on Australia's housing stock
Modern buildings are meant to last 50 years. And, this decade, the nation has set a goal of building a million new homes — trouble is, as things stand, they won't be future proof.
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Brisbane’s high-rise strategy welcomed amid warnings it will not solve social housing crisis
Brisbane’s lord mayor has been applauded for opening up more inner-city land for high-rise residential apartments – but has been warned it will do nothing to create more affordable homes or ease the city’s housing crisis without further intervention.
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SA’s planning minister wants to reshape debate over urban sprawl
The Malinauskas Government put Adelaide’s urban sprawl firmly back on the political agenda this week after announcing a move to rezone hundreds of hectares of greenfield land in the outer northern and southern suburbs for residential living.
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Inside fight to fix Aussie rental crisis as Perth hits 42-year low in availability and Airbnb deflects blame
Rental vacancies are at near-record lows across the country, and combined with skyrocketing house prices, families are being literally left out in the cold. The crisis is driven by a number of things, including increasing immigration and inflation. But another factor is the rise of short-term accommodation platform Airbnb.
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What if urban plans gave natural systems the space to recover from the cities built over them? It can be done
In response to climate change threats, cities around the world are making space to restore natural systems such as creeks, rivers, wetlands and vegetation on a larger scale. But this is an enormous task. These systems have been concreted, filled in or built over since the industrial revolution.
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‘Uncomfortable heritage’: how cities are repurposing former slaughterhouses
When buildings with difficult pasts are repurposed, the process often involves navigating between omission and selective remembrance.
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Cheap land, rates relief, high-rise apartments: Country towns innovate to ease housing squeeze
Regional Australia is experiencing a cruel population paradox. It has cheap land, councils are offering rates relief, and there's no shortage of would-be buyers — but there are no vacant houses or builders for new ones, and banks are baulking at financing loans.
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15-minute cities: How a plan to make your life more convenient became a full-blown conspiracy
Bars, restaurants, shops, parks, and your local GP all within walking distance. Sounds like a dream worth chasing, right? Not to conspiracy theorists, who think the idea of 15-minute cities are a "dystopian hellscape", part of a grand plan to control the masses.
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20 February 2023
The development sagas that show why Sydney’s planning system is broken
After 10 years, authorities are no closer to deciding whether this prime block of inner west land should stay as a warehouse or be turned into housing.
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How did Australia end up in this housing crisis and how could we get out of it?
Hardly a day goes by that a lack of affordable housing in Australia doesn't dominate the headlines. The stock of available housing in country areas has always been smaller and recent societal developments, like the push to the bush, during COVID in search of cheaper housing, made that pool shrink again.
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'Unrepentant' alternative living community fined $100,000 for flouting planning laws
The owner of a Margaret River property notorious for hosting raves and illegal campers says being fined won't end his dreams of building a community on his land.
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Copping fines for unapproved land clearing seen as 'cost of doing business' for developers, ex-regulator says
Tasmania's former forests regulator says penalties for unapproved land clearing are often just seen as "the cost of doing business" for private landowners.
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NSW parliamentary inquiry takes 'very serious' step of requiring premier's brothers to give evidence to Hills Shire Council inquiry
The premier's brothers and two others were issued with the legal summons after they failed to respond to invitations to give evidence to the inquiry, in what the committee's chair Sue Higginson describes as a coordinated attempt to avoid scrutiny.
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Plan will put everyone in England within 15 minutes of green space – but what matters is justice not distance
How long does it take you to walk to your nearest park, woodland, lake or river? If it takes more than 15 minutes, according to the UK government’s new environmental improvement plan for England, something needs to be done about it. It says 38% people in England don’t have a green or blue space within a 15-minute walk of their home.
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8th February 2023
Why neglected pockets of land like this overgrown Sydney carpark are 'really valuable for conservation'
Instead of cities relying on large green corridors to support native animals, this environmental scientist says there's an "urgent need" for more smaller urban green pockets to act as wildlife "stepping stones".
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Last-minute reprieve sees 'illegal' bridge remain — for now
A Launceston councillor who is being taken to court by his own council has been given a last-minute reprieve to dismantle a bridge while a tribunal sorts out whether it's illegal or not.
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Sydney's first new cemetery in 50 years sparks fresh debate about solutions to a shortage of burial space
As Australia's major cities continue to grow, there's fierce debate about how to deal with a looming shortage of burial space.
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What makes a great footpath? The answer is key to our happiness and wellbeing as we age
As people age, they often become less confident about walking. Fear of falling can limit the activity of older people, leading them to become isolated. So what, exactly, makes for a great footpath to walk on?
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How we accidentally planned the desertion of our cities
COVID-19 may have kick-started the decline of the Australian CBD, but this newly published research shows how planning decisions had already created cities that lacked resilience.
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Investors Backing Student Accomodation in Downturn
Student accommodation is luring real estate investors with the promise of recession-proof returns, according to industry.
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Maribyrnong inquiry chair backed flood rules removal – then the waters hit
The head of the Maribyrnong River flood inquiry is facing calls to resign after it emerged he supported changes to planning rules that led to a retirement village building homes in areas swamped during last year’s disaster.
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Labor puts north, inner west Sydney metro stops up for higher density housing
NSW Labor would rip up existing plans for housing development at metro stations and redo them with significantly higher density closer to central Sydney to rebalance population growth around infrastructure.
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Brisbane recycles sewage plant into $22 million family park
Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said Brisbane City Council would convert the former plant at Durack into a playground connected to a 150-hectare walking trails site.
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Perth, it’s time to end your love affair with big homes
While the dream of the suburban castle remains strong the fall in family sizes, looming energy price hikes and growing concern over climate change will force builders and consumers to rethink the bigger-is-better approach.
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18th Jan 2023
Road to nowhere: why the suburban cul-de-sac is an urban planning dead end
The cul-de-sac is a suburban trap. It’s virtually useless as a road, doesn’t support public transport, cycling or walking, and doesn’t work well as a play or gathering place. Its literal translation from the French is “bottom of a sack” – which sounds a lot less glamorous, you’ll agree. And yet we persist with them. The calls for more housing that resonate across many urban societies almost always include plans to repurpose broad swathes of agricultural land into single-family housing serviced by twisting strands of cul-de-sac-capped roads.
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Victorians fear country towns becoming 'extension of Melbourne' as last electorate prepares to vote
As small country towns in the electorate of Narracan become peri-urban suburbs, voters head to the polls concerned about traffic, development, and a clash of values.
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The ramshackle, illegal villages that hold on, despite the odds
Shack life and crayfish defined four villages 220 kilometres north of Perth for more than five decades. But 2020 delivered a double whammy that nearly spelled the end.
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In this Sydney suburb, one in three homes is empty. It’s not just a data error
There are 164,624 empty homes in Sydney, yet we have a five-figure waiting list for public housing. In the latest in our Unseen Sydney series, experts say solving the city’s housing crisis will not be simple.
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Acting CEO of City of Geelong takes own council to court over controversial planning decision
Guy Wilson-Browne is seeking to implement a two-lot subdivision on land he owns in the Geelong suburb of St Albans Park and has taken the development application to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
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Councils bid to stop state power grab over large residential developments
NSW councils have questioned a number of state government proposals to increase the supply of cheaper homes, including a special state-led approval process for large residential developments that contain at least 20 per cent affordable housing.
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Qld to test 'no-go' development zones in return for faster approvals
Queensland will be the first state to test plans to define “no-go zones” for developers in return for faster approvals outside these zones. Three bioregional plans are part of first level of new federal protections announced by federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek
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'What is the point?': Anger over limited scope of Maribyrnong River flood inquiry
Melbourne Water’s inquiry into floods that devastated hundreds of homes in the city’s west last October will deliberately exclude analysis of early warning systems, urban planning and government policies that might be made in response to the event.
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6th December 2022
Get ready for NSW’s Six Cities Region
Australia’s first multi-city region, the Six Cities Region, is being developed in New South Wales. A multi-city region, also known as a mega-region, establishes an integrated network of globally and locally connected cities. The Six Cities Region spans the Lower Hunter and Greater Newcastle City, Central Coast City, Illawarra-Shoalhaven City, Western Parkland City, Central River City and Eastern Harbour City.
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How superblocks can free up and improve CBD space for the people of Melbourne – a step-by-step guide
For 185 years, Melbourne’s Hoddle Grid – the ordered layout of CBD streets and blocks designed in 1837 – has dictated the flow of people and vehicles in the city centre. But how well does the grid serve 21st-century needs?
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Urban planning is now on the front line of the climate crisis. This is what it means for our cities and towns.
Land-use planning needs to be updated to respond to a changing climate. This means working with nature, involving communities and, importantly, including the tools needed to plan for risk and uncertainty. Examples include scenario planning, carbon assessments of developments, water-sensitive urban design and factoring in the latest climate science into everyday decisions on land use.
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'Like having a pool but useful': Why more Australians will share electric cars
Shared electric vehicles are being offered in more apartment buildings, office blocks and hotels — and experts say they could see some drivers ditch private cars altogether. Transport experts say the trend could also have significant consequences for car ownership in Australia, and the number of car parks we see in future buildings.
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Bring back the setback: Perth dead zones a planning fail, says expert
There’s a spot on an inner-city Perth commercial street that feels like the land that time forgot. Maybe I fell asleep at the wheel and went all the way to some abandoned industrial area on the urban fringe.
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Mulpha and UNSW release plan to reduce urban heat in Norwest by two degrees
Norwest parent developer Mulpha and the University of NSW Built Environment School have released the results of a two-year research study aimed at understanding how the Norwest precinct handles heat and assessing ways to mitigate its impact through smart building, infrastructure and landscape design. The target of the project is to lower the local Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) by two degrees, which will deliver significant cost savings and health benefits to the businesses, residents and visitors to Norwest.
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The challenge for ‘chauffeur mums’: navigating a city that wasn’t planned for women
Gendered impacts need to be placed at the heart of all stages of urban planning, an approach known as gender mainstreaming. Until this happens, our cities won’t be woman-friendly.
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Some councils still rely on outdated paper maps as supercharged storms make a mockery of flood planning
Whole towns and cities are seemingly locked into more frequent and severe flooding. Business-as-usual development continues despite extreme weather and sea-level rises due to climate change. While some local councils have online mapping, others are still using outdated paper maps. Repeated floods across eastern Australia have prompted the Planning Institute of Australia to call for a framework to update flood mapping to take climate change into account.
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Hobart's kunanyi/Mount Wellington cable car proposal fails as company declines to lodge appeal
The latest attempt to have a cable car built up to the summit of kunanyi/Mount Wellington is over after the company decided not to appeal against its defeat in Tasmania's planning tribunal.
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24th August 2022
Frozen in time, we've become blind to ways to build sustainability into our urban heritage
Change in our cities, and to our heritage, is both inevitable and necessary. Our relationships to neighbourhoods and places constantly evolve, as we learnt during COVID-19 lockdowns.
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New homes could be built in flood risk zones, town planners warn
New homes are likely to be built in areas at risk of flooding because many flood maps that guide planning decisions are out of date, Victoria’s peak body for town planners warns.
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NSW Government announces ambitious plan to rebuild Sydney's Central Station into a 'spectacular new public square'
The New South Wales Government has rolled out an ambitious plan to reshape the southern end of Sydney's Central Station with a hub of shops, restaurants, office spaces and housing built over the current rail corridor..
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How can we rethink our cities so children can get around safely?
Japanese TV show Old Enough has sparked a buzz among Western viewers. Rebecca Clements from the School of Architecture, Design and Planning explores the contrasts between Japan and Australia when it comes to letting children travel safely around their neighbourhoods on their own.
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Melbourne’s infrastructure mistakes could be repeated
Melbourne "went in the wrong direction" and suffered "a painful lesson". A new plan threatens to repeat that huge mistake.
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Sydney City Council votes on new net zero energy rules for offices, shopping centres and hotels
The City of Sydney is looking to bring in new planning controls that will mandate higher energy efficiency standards for offices, shopping centres and hotels, which will increase to net zero emissions from energy use from 2026.
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Urban sprawl not a dirty word as planning review kicks off
The Premier’s comment was made at last week’s local Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) lunch in Adelaide, where he talked about the state’s current housing demand to more than 400 attendees.
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Why turning old city bridges into new urban parks is such a great idea
Post-pandemic, finding innovative ways to eke out accessible green spaces in the urban environment is more urgent than ever. Doing so provides health and environmental benefits alongside economic ones, by promoting biodiversity, mitigating air pollution, and in some (though not all) cases, reducing the heat island effect.
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The case for degrowth: stop the endless expansion and work with what our cities already have
Now is not the time for anyone to announce that their city will become “bigger and better”. Cities don’t have to get bigger to evolve, and sooner or later all will have to reckon with the concept of degrowth.
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27th June 2022
Circular Quay to get ‘high line’ walkway amid redevelopment of Sydney gateway
NSW government allocates $216m for further design work, but Labor suggests announcement is just another ‘grandiose promise’. Sydney’s Circular Quay will get a dramatic new look, with a New York-style “high line” walkway featuring in a long-term plan to overhaul the iconic harbourside gate to the city.
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Pandemic’s impacts on how people live and work may change city centers for decades to come
If companies allowed more of their employees to permanently work from home, businesses would gravitate toward city centers, while people would primarily live in the periphery, resulting in less traffic congestion and falling real estate prices downtown. Those are our main findings from a model we created to forecast pandemic-driven changes in Los Angeles.
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Melbourne is Australia's most liveable city, but other state capitals have tumbled down the list
Australian cities have tumbled down the global liveability rankings, thanks largely to the wave of COVID-19 infections and lockdowns during 2021. The Austrian capital, Vienna, topped the rankings for the first time since 2019, with Melbourne in 10th spot — the highest-ranked Australian city — and tied with Osaka.
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Shepparton council votes against social housing proposal in city centre
Greater Shepparton City Council has voted down a proposal to sell or gift airspace above a council-owned car park in Shepparton's CBD for a social housing complex. The proposal by Beyond Housing and Wintringham Housing was to develop a four-storey residential building on the site, with car parks on the ground level and first floor and approximately 30 one- and two-bedroom units on the second and third floors.
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WA forges ahead with renewables transition as other states face energy crisis
It's been a big week in the world of power — although for different reasons depending on which side of Australia you're on. As much of the country struggles to keep the lights on, WA has taken a significant step in its renewables transition, announcing the end of state-run, coal-fired power plants by 2030. It's expected to have a big impact on household bills in the future, but why is it happening now, and what does it all mean?
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Broome to regulate Airbnbs as housing crisis continues to worsen
Home owners who rent out their properties on peer-to-peer accommodation websites in one of the country's most iconic tourist towns will soon have to register with the council. Broome Shire Council committed to the changes last month as part of a new planning scheme, which is still awaiting approval from the West Australian Planning Minister.
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Keylin, Kinstone Group reveal plans for $1.5 billion hospital and health precinct in Coomera
Two Queensland-based developers have teamed up to deliver a $1.5 billion private hospital and health precinct in the northern Gold Coast, with a catchment area of 160,000 people who would otherwise need to go to Southport for urgent care. Joint venture partners Keylin and Kinstone Group have lodged a development application with the Gold Coast City Council to transform its 47.7-hectare Foxwell Coomera site into a 400-bed 60,000sqm hospital.
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Murdoch University axes plan for Perth CBD campus and pulls out of City Deal project
Murdoch University has scrapped its plan for a multi-million-dollar inner-city vertical campus that had been a central plank of the highly touted Perth City Deal. The Murdoch project, which was estimated to cost $250 million and set to inject more than 10,000 students to the CBD, has been abandoned due to the financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the university said.
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Hobart's Macquarie Point development progress in 10 years 'appalling', PM Anthony Albanese says
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the Tasmanian government to "get on with" developing prime land on Hobart's waterfront that he poured tens of millions of dollars into when he was last in government a decade ago. The federal and state Labor governments signed an agreement to develop Macquarie Point in 2012, with Mr Albanese, then the infrastructure minister, committing $50 million towards remediating the site.
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Australian cities among worst performing on walkability and public transport access
Australian cities are falling short on walkability and other measures of healthy and sustainable lifestyles when compared with some lower-income countries, new research suggests. A Lancet Global Health series, launched on Wednesday, analysed urban design, transport and health outcomes for 25 cities in 19 countries, including Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
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29th May 2022
Property ownership is not the Australian dream for many lifelong renters
There are signs things may cool as many feel the heat of the property boom. CoreLogic's report showed property price growth in non-capital cities slowed from a peak of 6.6 per cent in the three months to April in 2021 to 4.7 per cent in 2022.
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As temperatures go through the roof, are our homes fit for summer?
There are entire towns in Southern Europe that are whitewashed, age-old examples of using light-coloured materials to reflect heat rather than absorb it in a bid to keep homes cool. Yet on the same day the latest IPCC report issued a warning to the world that it was “now or never” to stave off climate disaster, the NSW government abandoned its plan to switch to light-coloured roofs, among a suite of other sustainability measures aimed at improving building standards in the state.
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Four bedrooms ... four bathrooms? How COVID-19 is changing home design
"The Barnaby" might be a strange name for a home of the future, but that's what this four-bedroom demonstration house claims to be. Located in a small town in North Carolina, it's the size of an average new house in Australia and looks pretty normal from the outside. Inside, the differences are obvious: a front-door "vestibule" for no-contact home delivery, two "pocket" home offices (neither of which is a bedroom), a school room, a quarantine room, a "secret room" behind a bookcase (for being alone), and a whopping four bathrooms.
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After 10 years of Airbnb and short-stay rentals, is Australia ready for regulation?
For six months after breaking up with her partner, aged care worker Adriana Breen searched for a rental home on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. "The rental market was just non-existent," she said. "The rents were unaffordable as well. You're looking at $400-plus where they used to be $280."
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How digital technology can help keep cities green and pleasant
Parks, small woodlands and even simple patches of grass not only keep a city attractive, but also help people find a sense of bliss in an otherwise bustling urban environment. With new technologies, we can plan and monitor these urban “green spaces” better than ever before. As several studies have highlighted, nature within urban settings plays a pivotal role in combating many of the global public health challenges commonly associated with urbanisation. This includes maladies such as depression and high blood pressure. A 2022 study showed that trees actually have the ability to improve urban air quality as leaves and pine needles capture pollutants from the air.
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Neighbourhood green space is in rapid decline, deepening both the climate and mental health crises
The past 20 or so years of housing development in England and Wales has decimated community access to green space. That’s according to a new report from think tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF), which has brought together data on the age of housing developments, public green space provision and public perceptions of green space in their local area. As an academic researching and writing the role of access to nature in health and wellbeing I was shocked by the detail of the report.
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Fight to save Suttons Beach pavilion, a landmark on the Redcliffe foreshore neglected for decades
For anyone under the age of 85, the Suttons Beach pavilion has always been a feature of the Redcliffe foreshore. But after years of neglect and exposure to the elements, the bayside landmark could vanish. The historic building faces demolition, with concerns raised about its structural integrity.
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Queenslanders slowly returning to public transport post-pandemic, data shows
Queenslanders are slowly returning to public transport after two years of pandemic-hit patronage, with commuter figures hovering around 68 per cent of pre-COVID levels. Data from the state transport department shows in the week ending May 22, total patronage across busses, light rail and heavy rail sat at 2.6 million trips.
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Brisbane City Council's North Brisbane Bikeway delay angers cyclists and opponents
Supporters and opponents are unimpressed — for different reasons — over Brisbane City Council's decision to delay Stage 5 of the North Brisbane Bikeway. Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced this week the council would be delaying a number projects, including the bikeway and two green bridges across the Brisbane River, due to the massive cost of cleaning up after February's floods.
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South East Adelaide leads charge as country house prices gain pace
House prices in the state’s South East are outpacing the Adelaide market and growing faster than anywhere else in country South Australia, according to the latest regional real estate data. CoreLogic’s Regional Market Update, released last week, shows the top five fastest-growing country council areas in South Australia are all in the South East.
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Ban on new gas connections will help transition Victoria away from fossil fuels, inquiry finds
A Victorian parliamentary committee has recommended the Andrews government consider a ban on gas connections in new homes to help accelerate the state’s transition to renewables. It also urged Victoria to commit to a cut-off date for the sale of new petrol, diesel and gas-fuelled vehicles.
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7th April 2022
Sky high development could redefine Dandenong, but Little India traders fear 'heartbreaking' losses
New apartment towers, shopping centres and office complexes will transform the heart of central Dandenong under a plan to modernise one of Melbourne's most multicultural and fast-growing areas. But the proposal is not without some controversy.
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Canberra drivers will soon be able to check traffic conditions in real time with new technology
A new traffic management system will soon be installed to help Canberrans navigate traffic disruptions across the city centre. The ACT government says a combination of bluetooth sensors and new intersection cameras will be installed in "strategic locations" across the centre of Canberra, where disruption and congestion are most likely.
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In this part of Melbourne, once sleepy suburbs are changing quickly
In Melbourne's industrial west, a suburb once dominated by its oil refinery is being transformed as young families and retirees chase the dream of an affordable home by the bay. Some locals fear something precious could be lost along the way.
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People may well die of heat because the Planning Minister scrapped a good plan
The decision by NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts to scrap the draft Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) puts lives at risk. Nothing less.
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Our population is expected to double in 80 years. We asked Australians where they want all these people to live
Australia’s population is projected to grow to over 50 million people by 2101. This will have enormous implications for the country’s long-term infrastructure planning and prized livability, particularly in the capital cities where most growth is occurring.
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Queensland floods raise questions about the ‘ethical obligation of planners’
In the wake of the floods, some planners are advocating for a shakeup of the planning system.
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Gurner hopes to emulate New York’s Chelsea Market with $300m Geelong development
Luxury developer Gurner is partnering with Geelong businessman Dean Montgomery to develop a $300 million hotel, apartment and retail project close to the city’s waterfront. Encompassing Geelong’s historic wool store, which was constructed in 1872, the development site at 20 – 28 Brougham Street consists of 2100sqm of land and is located 300 metres from the waterfront.
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If we want to grow Adelaide, we need to plan for it
Poor urban design and the ongoing absence of an underground rail system are just two impediments to accelerated population growth, writes architect Guy Maron.
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As water levels rise so too does the pressure to stop building houses on flood plains
Residents of flood-prone Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley near Sydney say real estate agents should have to advise buyers of risks.
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Mayor defends planning decisions ‘made 150 years ago’ amid calls for flood insurance support
Home owners are being left to cover ‘catastrophic’ financial risks as the climate crisis and a legacy of poor planning coalesce, expert says.
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1 March 2022
Without urgent action, these are the street trees unlikely to survive climate change
Cities across the world are on the front line of climate change, and calls are growing for more urban cooling. Many governments are spending big on new trees in public places – but which species are most likely to thrive in a warmer world?
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Major projects in limbo amid Probuild collapse
The sudden collapse of one of Australia’s largest construction companies has sent shockwaves throughout the built environment sector and plunged more than a dozen major projects across the country into uncertainty. Probuild was placed into administration after its parent company, the South African-based Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO) ceased financial support for the builder.
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Going underground – the future of planning?
In the future, museums, swimming pools, churches, shops, residential structures – and eventually whole cities – will be built underground to accommodate increasing population growth, a researcher says. But Dr Asal Bidarmaghz, a lecturer at the UNSW School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says poor planning today that doesn’t take into account factors like underground climate change could make that future unsustainable.
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Sydney house prices fall but home loans for investors at record high
Housing loans for investors struck a record high in January, as new figures showed the growth in Australian house prices was at its slowest pace since October 2020 and Sydney’s house prices fell 0.1%. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said loans for housing rose 2.6% in January to $33.7bn.
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Government is wrong to resist heritage listing
Ed Wensing is one of a group of seven professionals who lodged one of two nominations in 2009 to have Canberra included on the National Heritage List. While they wait, the ACT government has started resisting the listing. In 2009, the then federal Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, called for nominations for entry on the National Heritage List under the theme of “A Free and Fair Australia”.
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Australian families are giving up on the suburban dream – but are new apartments up to the job?
As house prices soar to record levels across capital cities, an increasing number of younger Australians are giving up on the hope of owning a house with a backyard. Raising a family in an apartment is fast becoming the new, compact Australian dream. However, the boom in apartment construction in recent decades – led largely by investors buying off the plan – has brought with it design and quality problems that in many cases have turned the scaled-down dream home into a cramped, unliveable nightmare.
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Townsville's city centre struggles to revive as planners focus on future of Australian CBD post-COVID
Walking down Flinders Street in the tropical city of Townsville, it is hard to believe you are in the heart of a thriving regional capital in the midst of a population boom. There are vacant storefronts, cafes with no customers — and foot traffic is scarce. Academics say this city isn't an outlier, but the norm as the way Australians are using CBDs is changing.
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New IPCC report shows Australia is at real risk from climate change, with impacts worsening, future risks high, and wide-ranging adaptation needed
Climatic trends, extreme conditions and sea level rise are already hitting many of Australia’s ecosystems, industries and cities hard. As climate change intensifies, we are now seeing cascading and compounding impacts and risks, including where extreme events coincide. These are placing even greater pressure on our ability to respond. While the work of adaptation has begun, we have found the progress is uneven and insufficient, given the risks we face.
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‘Liquid gold’: Australian scientists look to recycle human urine to fertilise city parks
Could human urine be liquid gold for horticulturists? A new trial is examining if “number one” could be a cheap and sustainable source of fertiliser for plants and lawns in Australia’s city parks. The study, by Griffith University, aims to find out if “urine diversion toilets” being trialled in Brisbane and Sydney, might stop valuable excretions of potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen from disappearing down the S-bend.
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Hearts, cells and mud: how biology helps humans re-imagine our cities in vexed times
Biological metaphors for the city abound in daily use. You may live close to an “arterial” road or in the “heart” of a metropolis. You may work in one of the city’s “nerve centres” or exercise in a park described as the city’s “lungs”. The ready use of such metaphors indicates an underlying naturalism in our thinking about the city. Naturalism is a belief that a single theory unites natural and social systems. Historically, this way of thinking has helped us grapple with the complex urban predicaments. Today, as the world’s cities face new problems, fresh urban visions are needed again.
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Urban makers: why the city of the future needs to be productive
How can a city be socially just, environmentally sustainable and economically robust? And what role can urban industry play? These questions underpin IBA27, an ambitious international building exhibition to be held in the Stuttgart region of Germany in 2027. Ahead of that final showcase stage, designers from all over the world are taking part in multiple planning and architectural projects.
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10 February 2022
Ping-pong tables and free transit: plan to re-energise Sydney’s city centre
NSW government to consider ambitious plan to make the city centre a safer and more appealing destination
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The timeless appeal of the 15-minute city: How infrastructure planners can tackle the shift away from the CBD
Major city infrastructure is planned around the assumption that vast numbers of people will travel in and out of the same central business district (CBD), at the same times, every weekday. However, the pandemic has changed how society views commuting.
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Victorian government orders Environmental Effects Statement on plans to turn Hazelwood mine into lake
The Victorian government wants to know what the environmental impact will be if a giant old mine site in the Latrobe Valley is turned into a lake bigger than Sydney Harbour.
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Valentino Gareri Atelier Designs Prototype for Circular Economy Village In Australia
Valentino Gareri Atelier has been selected to design the pilot project for a circular economy village model that aims to redefine urban sprawl through sustainability and diverse programming.
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Housing shortage hurts regional Australia
Expensive and competitive rental markets are affecting locals and newcomers in regional areas Australia-wide, in part due to the influx of people escaping cities and working remotely from the country or the coast.
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Rail Links, Higher Densities Figure in Sunshine Coast’s Future
The Sunshine Coast Council is preparing to welcome 520,000 new residents by 2041, identifying sites for development and a new rail line. Creating a “community of communities” is the approach the council is taking shape the region’s future while reducing the number of Local Planning Areas from 27 to 18 in the proposed Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2041.
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Satellite mapping is preparing Australian cities for a warming earth
A new start-up is bringing out-of-this-world data down to Earth, arming urban planners with environmental analytics to inform how we can adapt our cities to a warming world.
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Australia is no stranger to earthquakes, yet our planning polices have not adapted
Earthquakes are far from unknown in Australia. Yet our planning system does not explicitly consider which areas are at unacceptable risk from earthquakes. We continue to build in earthquake-prone areas across Australia, relying solely on building design to manage these risks.
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As backyards get smaller and trees are removed, urban heat islands could be making suburbs hotter
The subdivision trend is exacerbating an urban heat island effect, where hard surfaces like concrete and steel absorb and then release heat. Trees and the shade they provide can help reduce the impact, but stripping away that canopy accelerates the effect.
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What if we relaxed planning but only for more affordable housing? Meet the Woollahra Buyers Club
The housing affordability crisis derives, in part, from two conditions: financialisation of housing that favours it as an asset class above its function to provide shelter, and the monopolistic nature of land. These combine to bar access for the less well-off, particularly the young. Yet, a parliamentary enquiry looks set to blame planning as the cause. Here’s one suggestion to improve housing affordability that links all three conditions.
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1st October 2021
$632m Coomera Connector blowout should prompt rethink of planning priorities: economist
The $632 million budget blowout of the Coomera Connector should give the state government moment to pause and reassess its planning priorities, according to a Gold Coast economist. The government has confirmed its business case for stage one of the project has seen the cost jump about 40 per cent to $2.1 billion.
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Jabree Limited's light rail process sparks concern amongst some in Indigenous community
Concerns have been raised that some families in the Gold Coast Indigenous community have not been adequately included in parts of the light rail consultation process by a local cultural heritage group. The project would see the light rail extended south along the Gold Coast Highway from Burleigh Heads, past sacred Jellurgal (Burleigh Head National Park) and over Tallebudgera Creek.
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Walt Disney’s radical vision for a new kind of city
Since Epcot’s inception, millions of tourists have descended upon the theme park famous for its Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere and its celebration of international cultures. But the version of Epcot visitors encounter at Disney World – currently in the midst of its 50th anniversary celebrations – is hardly what Walt Disney imagined.
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Integration of geospatial technologies is a necessity for urban planning
The concept of smart cities is fast becoming a global trend since it provides a comprehensive digital environment that improves the efficiency and security of urban systems and reinforces the involvement of citizens in the urban development process. Geospatial data underpins almost every aspect of smart city development. It plays a key role in the planning and decision-making process for delivering urban services in a dynamic environment, for developing comprehensive city management systems, and dealing with complex urban environmental issues.
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Environmentalists slam decision to allow Figtree Hill housing development in koala habitat
The NSW Land and Environment Court has dismissed a legal bid to overturn the development approval for a 1,700-home housing estate that environmental groups say will decimate Sydney's growing koala population. The failed challenge by Save Sydney's Koalas against developer Lendlease and Campbelltown Council was aimed at stopping the clearing of a land corridor deemed to be a major access point for koalas moving between the Georges and Nepean Rivers.
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Australian billionaires pounce as massive landholding in NSW Southern Highlands hits the market
A New South Wales real estate agent says it has been inundated with calls from Australian billionaires wanting to buy the largest landholding up for sale in the state's Southern Highlands. Hume Coal, a subsidiary of the Korean-owned POSCO, is selling the 1,300 hectares of land near Berrima, en masse, after the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) rejected the company's plans to build a new underground coal mine in the area.
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Building more homes could cut prices by 20%: Grattan Institute
Constructing an extra 50,000 homes a year over a decade could result in house prices and rents being up to 20 per cent lower, the Grattan Institute has estimated. The think tank has pushed for the government to boost housing supply in its submission to the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into housing affordability.
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Homes to accommodate harvest jobs bonanza
Thousands of jobs are up for grabs as the South Australian agricultural industry braces for a bumper harvest. Already, hotels and motels are being booked out in regional towns, but more accommodation is needed for this influx of workers. That’s why the Marshall Liberal Government is temporarily changing planning rules, to streamline the development application process, ensuring short-term accommodation can be set up quickly.
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Australia is no stranger to earthquakes, yet our planning polices have not adapted
The quake in question, which was followed by two smaller tremors, was powerful enough to damage buildings 130 kilometres away in Melbourne, and the shaking was felt as far away as Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Launceston. The damage to buildings confirmed the impact a large quake can have on our built environment.
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Council establishes Blue Mountains Planetary Health Advisory Committee
As one of only two cities in the world located within a UNESCO declared World Heritage Area, the Council recognises its stewardship responsibility in managing the City of Blue Mountains sustainably within a landscape of global biodiversity and ecosystem significance.
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‘We are not safe’: Warning on city buildings as more quakes predicted
If an earthquake similar in size to the 5.9 magnitude tremor that hit Mansfield last week was to strike directly beneath Melbourne, more than 1400 people could be killed or injured and $163 billion worth of building damage sustained. Modelling for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre forecasts a magnitude 6 quake striking under the city would shut down much of the transport network, with train and tram tracks bending and bridges collapsing.
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16th September 2021
Reimagining the Australian city
A panel of urban planning experts will explore how COVID-19 is shifting the parameters on how Australia’s future cities should look and examine whether it’s time to revisit some ideas from the past.
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New infrastructure plan needed as work from home goes regional
The largest exodus of people to regional areas from Australia’s major cities since the 19th-century gold rushes and a surge in working from home will force a rethink of how infrastructure is put in place around the nation.
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Light Rail: the future of smarter transport infrastructure
As Australian cities continue to grow and expand, they require smart and sustainable public transport networks. With a collection of tram networks across the country, Australia is no stranger to the benefits of adopting Light Rail. However, what are the challenges facing Australian cities implementing Light Rail and how can we overcome them?
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Planning alone will not fix Sydney’s housing affordability crisis
While dinner parties and barbecues have been temporarily replaced by Zoom calls and virtual drinks, the big topics of conversation remain unchanged. It’s fair to say that talk of the pandemic is tiring most by now. But what is clear is that property prices are still a perennial hot topic for Sydneysiders, no matter what the social get-together is.
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Infrastructure body calls for systemic approach to resilience planning as cost of natural disasters escalates
Australia must take a whole-of-system approach to infrastructure planning in order to become more resilient to natural disasters and other threats, according to new research released by Infrastructure Australia today.
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Penrith set to become Australian film and TV capital
The western Sydney location of the final scene in Mad Max: Fury Road could soon become a permanent production house for some of the world’s biggest blockbuster films. Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes said a proposal to transform part of Penrith Lakes into a movie mecca is on track, with changes to planning rules set to pave the way for a $150 million film production precinct.
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Freight future needs certainty on planning
A “tsunami of freight” has flowed through Australia’s ports and supply chains throughout the Covid-19 pandemic period, but supply chain experts warn future efficiency gains will be dependent on greater infrastructure connectivity and national consistency. Australia’s ports again facilitated the movement of 98 per cent of the nation’s trade, from imported medical supplies and home-renovation materials, to bumper exports of agriculture and resources.
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Can an app change Australia’s car culture? Only if all moving parts work together
Getting around an Australian city without a car can be a real hassle. Imagine how much easier it would be if you had the option of combining public transport and shared services — be it bus, train, tram, taxi, car share, electric bicycle or e-scooter — and could book and pay for the lot using a single app. In Finland, this is already an option. The digital platform Whim enables you to book and pay for a trip mixing public transport, ferry service, car rental, taxi, shared bike and even e-scooter.
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National infrastructure plan has welcome focus on growing cities
The Property Council of Australia has welcomed the release of Infrastructure Australia’s 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan, a 15-year roadmap of reforms and investment initiatives. Property Council Chief Executive, Ken Morrison, said that the Plan had a welcome focus the infrastructure needs of our growing cities and the role of the built environment in transitioning the economy to net zero emissions.
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MIT researchers advance the idea of using technology to make urban life creative and unpredictable
“The argument of the book is, we can use technology to bring back serendipity and fantasy in the design of cities,” says Duarte, a lecturer in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and a principal research scientist at MIT’s Senseable Cities Lab. “We are not putting technology aside. We can sustain the openness of urban life through technology.” In the book, Duarte and Alvarez discuss multiple ways technology can make cities more playful places.
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2nd September 2021
COVID induced shift to regional living
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased interest in Australia's regions. New research led by Sydney's School of Architecture, Design and Planning highlights the regional centres most likely to benefit from new economic activity, and the potential improvement in urban congestion and housing affordability in capital cities.
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Brisbane community gardeners rally against proposed housing development, 'gentrification' of city suburb
A West End community garden group brandished pitchforks, rakes and placards in a peaceful march through the inner Brisbane suburb to protest a development proposal that would encroach on the state-owned veggie patch and see the existing housing on the adjoining property demolished. A modest crowd chanted as they marched down Boundary Street from Bunyapa Park on Saturday afternoon behind a banner that read: Compost the Rich.
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Future Fuels Fund revved up to provide EV charging nationally
On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has today announced $24.55 million in funding to five applicants across 19 projects to expand Australia’s fast charging network for battery electric vehicles (EVs), in Round 1 of the Government’s Future Fuels Fund. The expanded funding pool, increased by $8.05 million from an initial allocation of $16.5 million, was made available after ARENA was impressed by the strength and number of applicants to the funding round.
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Gurner plots 40-level mixed-use Southbank tower
There's no slowing down the rapidly active apartment developer GURNERTM, who is continuing to bolster its $7 billion pipeline. Their latest play, following the announcement of the $1.25 billion plans in Surfers Paradise, is back on their home patch of Melbourne. Gurner, led by the renowned developer Tim Gurner, has secured a site at 334 City Road in Southbank, and plans a $250 million, 40-level tower, which will have 400 apartments, ground-level retail, and a gym.
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How COVID-19 lockdowns and car-free days affected air pollution in Rwanda’s capital
Rising levels of vehicle traffic, industrial activity and urban sprawl are contributing to rising levels of air pollution across the global South. This is particularly the case in cities where urbanisation is progressing fastest. In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the population has surged from less than 500,000 in 2000 to more than 1 million today. It is set to increase to nearly 2 million by 2030. At the same time, vehicle numbers in the city have increased from just 55,000 in 1999 to more than 200,000 in 2019.
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Building stronger connections between schools and communities
As students started learning remotely, many people realised how vital our schools are as sites of community connection – not only for students but for families, carers and members of the broader community as well. Of course, schools have always been at the heart of Australian communities. However, many are rarely used outside of hours, on weekends or during school holidays, making them some of Australia’s most underutilised assets.
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Here's what south-east Queensland councils are doing about climate change
Intense bushfires, worsening droughts, storms and floods — south-east Queensland has already experienced climate change and is in line for more. In south-east Queensland, local governments are part of a grassroots push. The Climate Council's Cities Power Partnership enrols councils in climate mitigation strategies.
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WA plans to build Australia's longest EV charging network
Australia's largest state is planning to roll out up to 90 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations stretching as far north as Kununurra, south to Esperance and east to Kalgoorlie. A tender for the charging stations is expected to go out to the market by the end of this year, with the network expected to be fully operational by 2024.
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New Strategy, Planning Controls For Fishermans Bend
A new plan to build a centre of high-value industries and jobs at Fishermans Bend unveiled today positions Victoria at the forefront of global advanced manufacturing, engineering and design innovation. inister for Business Precincts Martin Pakula today launched the Advancing Manufacturing – the Fishermans Bend opportunity statement which, supported by major investments and planning approvals, will work to attract key investors and major partners like the University of Melbourne to build on Victoria’s industrial excellence.
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City of Perth backflips into WACA pool deal but won’t fund upkeep
The City of Perth has rejoined the WACA pool party by agreeing to put $25 million towards the $100 million redevelopment of the iconic cricket ground but refuses to pay for the new facility’s upkeep. Perth council voted unanimously on Tuesday afternoon to stump up the capital costs after previously deciding in July to withdraw from the project which is part of the broader $1.5 billion city deal between the state, federal, and local governments.
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Pandemic reveals the price of packing people in
There is a binary debate between those who are concerned about the impact of “urban sprawl” on the environment and those who are concerned about the impact on health of the population from the ever increasing number of apartment towers.
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26th August 2021
NSW Finalises Sydney Rezoning Blitz
New South Wales is undergoing a rezoning blitz across Sydney to create more than 16,000 homes and a new industrial precinct. The state government has progressed rezoning in growth areas including Leppington Precinct stages two and five, which allow for up to 2400 new homes.
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Build-to-Rent’s Global Model Gets Aussie Inspiration
Australia may be something of a latecomer to the build-to-rent game compared to other countries but its homegrown projects for the emerging asset class are shaping up as world leaders. The local knowledge of architects and developers is bringing a new approach to the evolution of the institutionally-owned and managed rental communities.
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Canberra's population is set to nearly double within 40 years — but one developer wants it to grow even larger
Canberra's population is on track to increase from 432,000 to 700,000 people within 40 years. But experts are divided about whether that is a good or bad thing for the growing national capital. The ACT government is expected to soon release the newest population projections to the year 2061, based on research from the ANU School of Demography.
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Climate change means more floods, fires and heatwaves. Some communities are already adapting
Climate scientists have warned Australia that it must pick up the pace on its climate adaptation efforts. The IPCC defines adaptation as "the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects". The goal is to take steps to protect communities and reduce their vulnerability to the harmful effects of climate change.
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Have Australians fallen out of love with Sydney and Melbourne?
Australians take their lifestyles seriously, so could coronavirus-induced flexibility change their living preferences forever? For some - notably wealthier white-collar workers who have the option to work remotely - they can leave the busy and expensive large cities, and move somewhere much quieter and cheaper in pursuit of a better lifestyle.
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More than meets the eye in town planning
An urban planning expert has warned the design of our suburbs is making us physically and mentally unwell. Nationally, a dependency on cars, plus the lack of pedestrian access, means there is little incentive for physical activity, prompting Hatch RobertsDay Co-Founder and Partner Mike Day to call for alternative, more sustainable forms of transport, bringing to light that 40 per cent of the nation’s population do not have access to a car.
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Fit for a king: Prince Charles’ experimental city is proving critics wrong
After a three-hour drive through the English countryside, I arrive in the town of Poundbury and climb out of the car to examine my strange new surroundings. These are not centuries-old buildings, though. They’re not even five years old. They are, in fact, a fascinating experiment in urban design championed by heir-to-the-throne and architecture critic-in-chief Prince Charles.
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Why the changing colour of our streetlights could be a danger for insect populations
Life on Earth has evolved alongside predictable cycles of day and night. But this pattern has become increasingly blurred. Between 2012 and 2016, satellite measurements revealed that the global area polluted by artificial light grew by 2% each year, intruding ever deeper into biodiversity hotspots like tropical forests.
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Commuter car parks weren't built near Australia's most congested roads, or in fastest-growing suburbs
Australia's cities are getting more congested, which is why the government committed $660 million in 2019 to build more car parks at city train stations to get more people catching trains. But it turns out, deciding where to build car parks to improve traffic isn't as easy as asking a handful of politicians.
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Town planners on a 'crusade' against TB could help us to redesign our cities post-COVID
Can the lessons learnt from managing a deadly disease more than a century ago be applied to our current predicament? How do town planners consider our health when designing communities? And will the pandemic permanently change how we live?
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‘Blistering temperatures’: Dark roofing banned on Sydney’s urban fringe
Dark roofing will be banned in Sydney’s south-west growth area in an attempt by the NSW government to dial back the heat island effect while providing sorely needed new homes. Lighter coloured roofs will be a mandatory part of the planning controls for the Wilton area, busting the march of Colorbond Ironstone that has long been synonymous with Australian urban sprawl.
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Why does Queensland still have so many level crossings?
They are "incredibly dangerous", according to the RACQ, and they cause congestion — so why does Queensland still have more than 1,200 level crossings? Accidents between trains, drivers, pedestrians and cyclists at level crossings have resulted in numerous deaths and injuries over the years, yet no level crossing has been removed in Brisbane since 2014.
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5th August 2021
South Coast villages brace for development influx amid city exodus
Some of the NSW’s most idyllic coastal villages are bracing for a flood of housing development as Sydneysiders seeking to escape the pandemic push up prices and awaken long-dormant projects.
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Cities 2060
A sea-change or tree change has its appeal but you’re running against a global trend. Over half of the world’s population now live in towns and cities and there’s no sign of it slowing down. It’s a headache for city planners who are trying to keep up with demand. So how do we get ahead of the game?
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New Queensland town to spring up as thousands stream over the border
A new bayside precinct, just a stone’s throw from an award-winning winery, is set to be created as south-east Queensland prepares for an influx of tens of thousands of new residents.
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NSW Unlocks Greenfield Sites for 18,000 Houses
The New South Wales government has announced it will unlock greenfield land supply to combat housing shortages. Deputy Premier John Barilaro said they would be focused on attracting new residents to regional towns.
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Lockers for homeless in Launceston ready to go but no agreement on where to put them
Launceston's growing homeless population are calling for more storage options for their gear to avoid theft and lugging their supplies around.
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McDonalds, Bunnings, service station plans for Kyneton face mixed reception
Arguments for and against plans for a new development in the central Victorian town of Kyneton — that includes a McDonalds outlet, a service station and a Bunnings store — will be heard by a planning tribunal.
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Logan City Council's $9 million planning pitch to cope with booming population and demand for services
Logan City Council has set aside $9 million for a five-year project to completely overhaul the booming South East Queensland region's planning scheme.
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Heart health: design cities differently and it can help us live longer
New research from the University Medical Centre in Mainz, Germany, explores how urbanisation exacerbates the risks of such diseases. Young people are increasingly concentrated in the world’s cities. Their future health is at risk. Can city planning can be harnessed to protect their health?
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22nd July 2021
Wildlife 'win' as Queensland government moves to acquire land for Currumbin eco-park from developers
Almost 150 hectares of southern Gold Coast land is to be transformed into one of the largest eco-parks in the country through compulsory acquisition from the defiant owners.
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Brighton locals fight council on the beaches
Dendy Street Beach, home of Brighton’s very famous bathing boxes, is once again a battleground over a $10.6m proposal to build a pavilion on a seriously contaminated site.
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'Drop to certain death': Unbelievable defect in Sydney apartment tower
Sydney is no stranger to apartment defects, but the deadly drop found in this one could set a new benchmark for danger.
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Councillor, farmers ridicule proposal to ban glyphosate in Nillumbik Shire
A rural landowner and councillor in Nillumbik Shire says her own council's proposal to restrict the use of glyphosate and ban its sale is “moronic”.
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Why a killer US heatwave points to a stifling future for our cities
Dr Sebastian Pfautsch, a specialist on urban heat at Western Sydney University, says though Australian attention has drifted from the terrible summer of 2019 and 2020, he fears for the future of residents of some suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne. The heat is coming, he says, and we are not prepared for it.
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Melbourne needs to lift its architecture game
Melbourne is Australia’s most interesting city for architecture and design. Beginning with the good bones provided by the Hoddle Grid, Melbourne has added some amazing buildings over the decades. But in recent years Melbourne has allowed too many poor developments to be built.
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Greater Sydney has 'housing supply crisis' as report warns prices will continue to surge
Greater Sydney's eye-watering house prices have surged this year with a new report warning there will be more rises on the way.
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8th July 2021
Full speed ahead for faster planning assessments
The planning system will be faster, easier to use and more transparent thanks to the delivery of a raft of new reforms aimed at improving the assessment of State significant projects. The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment’s Group Deputy Secretary of Planning and Assessment, Marcus Ray, said major projects were an important economic driver and that’s why NSW needs a predictable and fast planning system. “The new Rapid Assessment Framework will slash end-to-end assessment times for major projects like hospitals, warehouses and schools by at least 21 days, by making the process easier for everyone involved,” Mr Ray said.
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Guideline to boost community engagement
A new approach to considering the impacts of major projects on people will be adopted by the NSW Government, to ensure consistency and better outcomes for the community.
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COVID has disrupted our big cities, and regional planning has to catch up fast
The pandemic is refocusing planners’ attention on the vulnerability of cities to natural hazards and other threats. Securing food, water and energy, sustaining health services and maintaining critical supply chains are seen as more important than ever. Planners are also concerned about rising social inequality.
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Greater Sydney to get greener with 45,000 trees
More than 25,000 free trees will be given to households across Greater Sydney and another 20,000 trees planted by councils as part of a program to make our cities, towns and suburbs greener and more beautiful places to live.
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Why Are We Providing So Much Parking In Growth Areas?
As our city continues to expand, the pressure to provide car parking hasn’t diminished, despite years of planning policy encouraging sustainable models of transport, 20 minute cities and walkable neighbourhoods. Instead, many growth corridor Councils are requiring the provision of on-street car parking at a rate double the statutory rate, with adverse consequences for our suburbs.
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Poor urban planning contributing to mental and physical health decline
Suburban design that doesn’t encourage exercise and fails to foster a sense of community is contributing to physical and mental illness. And Covid-19 and its ensuing lockdowns and radiuses is making the problem worse by compounding feelings of loneliness and isolation.
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Garden cities: Ebenezer Howard would be stoked
Many planning ideas have come and gone, but the utopian Garden City and its offshoot, the Garden Suburb, has proved to be the most enduring concept.
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Collingwood and South Yarra new sites in Victorian government's $5.3 billion social housing project
Collingwood and South Yarra will have new public housing as part of the Victorian government's $5.3 billion commitment to build more than 12,000 social and affordable homes.
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27 May 2021
Melbourne's housing wave has reached Preston Market. Some fear it won't survive
For more than 50 years, the airy market has been a vibrant illustration of Melbourne's north — a cultural melting pot where families could rely on good quality, cheap produce. But the sprawling land it sits on also has huge value in the eyes of the state's planners as they consider where to house Melbourne's growing population.
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Thinking of moving to Geelong? This framework will set the future of the city
Melbourne used to be "empty" and "useless" before a plan turned the CBD into a thriving food, art and shopping metropolis. Now experts want the same for Geelong.
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Victoria Park golf course to close on June 30 then reopen as public parkland
Victoria Park Golf Course will open for public use as parkland in a matter of weeks, as preparations begin to revamp the grounds into a 45-hectare park.
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Planning shake-up needed to help those whose job it is to make NSW a healthy place
Research has shown where you live shapes how easy it is to make social connections, keep physically active, enjoy green spaces and buy healthy food. The evidence is clear. But how do we create places that help promote good health and well-being for all?
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What next for parklets? It doesn't have to be a permanent switch back to parking
Outdoor dining on former parking spaces – generally known as parklets – has proliferated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reduced demand for parking coincided with increased demand for outdoor space – but when the pandemic subsides, cities must decide what comes next. Is this a temporary change before we return to the car-dependent city, or can it help us create a better city?
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Slaves to speed, we'd all benefit from 'slow cities'
Slowing transport in cities provides immense benefits for the health of people, economies and the planet, so why are we still obsessed with speed?
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Victorian Government, City of Melbourne pledge $260m to bring CBD back to life
Diners in Melbourne's CBD will soon receive discounts of up to $100 on their meals as part of a plan, worth more than $260 million, to revive the city.
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The challenge of making public spaces safer for women
Belinda and Olivia jog together and avoid "creepy" underpasses and narrow paths. Now their local Melbourne council is seeking to make some simple changes to make women feel safer.
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25 March 2021
Not 'if', but 'when': city planners need to design for flooding. These examples show the way
As the current New South Wales flooding highlights, it’s not enough to continue to build cities and towns based on business-as-usual planning principles — especially as these disasters tend to disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations, increasing inequality in Australia.
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Is temporary the new permanent? COVID street experiments open our eyes to creating better cities
Experiments can help us navigate change in cities. They can also make us braver by allowing us to test out ideas that might fail or that not everyone seems to like. If the past year has made us more comfortable and confident with experimenting, all the better to help our cities meet the challenges ahead.
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Build-to-rent surge will change apartment living for Australians, but for better or worse?
Australia’s emerging build-to-rent sector is growing — “booming” by some accounts with a 70% jump in value in the past year. Under this model, institutional investors develop purpose-built rental apartments to retain and operate under single ownership. In Australia, it will change how apartments are designed and developed, how we are housed and how our tenancies are managed.
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Thousands of hectares of farmland being lost to residential developments in regional Victoria
Gary Surman has spent 20 years building his dream vineyard and welcoming guests to his country views in Warragul, in Victoria's east. But a proposed housing development could see a kilometre of residential houses built along the border of his property, and put an end to his business.
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State plan to fast-track Roma Street precinct development slammed by Brisbane City Council
A Queensland government plan to fast-track development around Brisbane's Roma Street Station as part of Cross River Rail has been met with criticism from Brisbane City Council. The state's plan could see up to 4,000 more people living around Roma Street Parklands by 2036, as well as adding an education facility, retail, shops, hotels and short-term accommodation, and a possible stadium.
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4th March 2021
This is how we create the age-friendly smart city
Senior citizens need help and encouragement to remain active as they age in their own communities. Given the choice, that’s what most would prefer. The smart city can provide the digital infrastructure for them to find and tailor the local neighbourhood information they need to achieve this. Australia has a growing population of older adults, the majority living in cities. The challenge, then, is to ensure city environments meet their needs and personal goals.
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'Ageing in neighbourhood': what seniors want instead of retirement villages and how to achieve it
The challenges are complex and urgent as the global population grows and ages. Yet our housing supply reveals a bad case of the tail wagging the dog. Finely tuned financial models and development processes are driving the housing products available in the market. What’s needed instead is adaptable housing and neighbourhoods to help people as they move through life’s stages.
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Brisbane City Council development applications flooded with public submissions that may not be properly made
Development applications lodged with Brisbane City Council are being flooded with proforma submissions in a bid to sway the council's decision to approve or reject applications, but submitters may be wasting their time.
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Sydney news: Sutherland Shire Council rejects demand to hand over Jannali carpark to Transport for NSW
A south Sydney council has rejected the state government's ultimatum to hand over a shopping centre carpark or see local residents' homes demolished.
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Push to preserve 50 Melbourne mid-century modern buildings proves divisive
A council in Melbourne's south-east wants to preserve mid-century architecture. It's drawn up a list of 50 buildings it thinks are worthy of heritage protection, but some are worried it will reduce property values by preventing redevelopment
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Retrofitting Australia’s post-war suburbia
As Australian cities become denser, some of the post-war homes that changed Australia forever are facing the bulldozer, so who’s going to save them once their owners are gone?
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The Gold Coast needs 6,500 new homes a year, but where can they be built?
The Gold Coast is running out of greenfield land to house its growing population, with community opposition seeing proposals for higher-density development within the city's existing footprint rejected.
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Queensland towns facing remote-worker settler boom warned to brace for growing pains
A top Queensland planning expert has warned regions popular with new arrivals are facing impacts akin to a major resources boom as settlers push up house prices and rents, potentially forcing out locals.
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18 February 2021
How new design patterns can enable cities and their residents to change with climate change
Our cities, designed for one set of climatic ranges, are increasingly "out of place" as average temperatures rise. The days above 40? and nights above 30? are increasing, especially in the expanding suburbs of Australian cities. This presents us with a massive redesign project.
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Tasmania's Latrobe Council in costly blunder over Wesley Vale accommodation development
Ratepayers in Tasmania's north-west will have to pay potentially "tens of thousands of dollars" in legal fees after the local council failed to properly reject a development application and lost an appeal before the state's planning tribunal..
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Cancer Council NSW throws shade at local government town planners over exposed urban spaces
Cancer Council NSW says local governments have a role in helping reduce the high rate of skin cancer by introducing more shade in public places.
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Great Ocean Road community rails against proposed mega caravan park in Torquay
An application to build a multi-million dollar caravan park in Torquay has been slammed by locals as inappropriate and dangerous.br /> Read more
Victorian Government plans to block property development if owners unlawfully demolish heritage buildings
The Victorian Government has introduced legislation into Parliament today which could stop development on a property for up to a decade if heritage buildings are illegally demolished.
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Do offsets and biobanking protect biodiversity?
Biodiversity offsets have become a widely-accepted way to attempt to compensate for the destruction of endangered habitat and species in mining and other large scale development projects, but do they work?
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Heatwaves may mean Sydney is too hot for people to live in 'within decades'
Already, heat kills more people in Australia than any other natural disaster, including floods, cyclones and bushfires. Now, faced with the prospect of 50-degree-plus summers, experts say highly urbanised parts of Australia may become unliveable within decades.
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From steel city to bike city: Wollongong pins hopes on becoming world-class cycling destination
With 130km of bike paths that wind along the region’s beaches, Australia’s 10th-largest city is striving to make cycling the preferred mode of transport. But it’s an uphill battle
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Sydney cycling: has the city that 'hates bikes' finally turned the corner?
When the officials charged with making cycling safer and more accessible in Sydney meet their international counterparts, they can expect to be greeted with a mixture of incredulity and sympathy.
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Behind Sydney’s award-winning urban renewal of the Green Square project
Twenty years ago, just after the opening of Green Square station, four kilometres from Sydney’s CBD, a relatively young Australian landscape firm, McGregor Coxall, won an international competition to master-plan the town centre of what continues to unfold as Australia’s biggest urban renewal project.
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15 Jan 2021
Young children are intuitive urban planners — we would all benefit from living in their 'care-full' cities
In an age of climate crisis, unaffordable housing and increasing disparities of wealth, the livability and functionality of our cities are more important than ever. And yet, important voices are missing from urban planning debates — the voices of those who will one day inherit those cities.
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Plan to make Western Sydney Airport city 'green' is at odds with flight safety
A report used for the draft master plan of a new sustainable city surrounding the Western Sydney Airport has warned of the increased risk of bird strikes because of 'green' initiatives planned across the region.
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Post-pandemic cities can permanently reclaim public spaces as gathering places
Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns?
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The Age of Suburbia
“Mr. Covid has been the best city and regional planner Australia has ever had. The suburbs will shine, and regions will grow. Maybe we should forget about big city infrastructure projects for a while and spend it on our future resilient communities where people look out for each other.”
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Regional Australia's time has come – planning for growth is now vital
The main policy problem for regional cities has been creating enough employment opportunities to attract residents from capital cities. Unexpectedly, the COVID-driven trend towards remote working may have delivered a solution.
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Don't transport Melbourne planning woes to regions: liveability professor
Governments must intervene now to stop Melbourne’s planning woes being replicated in regional Victoria, a liveability expert has warned, as the pandemic prompts more city dwellers to consider a tree change. Dr Iain Butterworth, an honorary associate professor at RMIT, wants authorities to use the pandemic to rethink planning regulations, to avoid ruining unique regional towns with urban sprawl and car dependence.
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90% of buildings in bushfire-prone areas aren’t built to survive fires. A national policy can start to fix this
Effective building standards are vital, but they should not be the primary mechanism for risk reduction. There must also be a focus on town planning to locate buildings in less hazard-prone areas.
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'Minecraft' is being used to teach AI to how to do urban planning
Minecraft, the uber-popular sandbox building game launched nearly a decade ago, is being used for much more than playtime. The software has found itself home to everything from virtual music festivals to virtual libraries in the recent past. Now designers are using it as a playground for artificial intelligence (AI). The Generative Design in Minecraft competition (GDMC) asks users to create an AI architect and then have it build a realistic town or village in the virtual landscape.
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10 Nov 2020
"Every suburb in Perth is facing this" - the possible effects of a "corruptible system"
Perth Alliance for Responsible Urban Planning is arguing householders and Perth councils are powerless against big developers. Spokesperson Ian Love told Oliver Peterson communities should be at the centre of planning decisions "not property developers." "Communities feel as thought they've got no one in their corner" said Mr Love
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Bold plan to build up to 6000 new affordable homes in Melbourne
At least 5 per cent of all new residential development in the City of Melbourne would be set aside for social housing from next year, leading to the construction of up to 6000 new affordable homes by 2035, under a bold Greens election policy for Town Hall.
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Students prefer space to height so CBD uni campuses may not be the answer
Let's talk about "city deals". The Australian government is. Its department of infrastructure website describes them as "a genuine partnership between the three levels of government and the community to work towards a shared vision for productive and liveable cities". So far Australia has had eight city deals, in Townsville, Launceston, western Sydney, Darwin, Hobart, Geelong, Adelaide, Perth and southeast Queensland.
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Coronavirus has led to empty offices and quiet CBDs. It's time to get creative
The pandemic has left our major cities with neither hustle nor bustle. As millions of people around the world are told to work from home, officials in cities like Melbourne and Sydney are making plans to kickstart their CBDs. One group, among the hardest hit by the pandemic, may hold the key — artists and creatives such as musicians, designers, craftspeople and theatre makers.
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City Of Sydney Seeks Feedback On Proposed Future Night-Time And Cultural Life
Looking to re-energise Sydney’s $4 billion night-time economy and to create more opportunities for creative and cultural activities, the City of Sydney is seeking feedback on proposed planning controls. The draft planning proposals will allow existing shops and businesses to trade until 10pm without any additional development consent, help protect live entertainment venues across the city, and create more opportunities for small scale cultural activities to be held in existing retail office and community spaces.
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Mould and damp health costs are about 3 times those of sugary drinks. We need a healthy housing agenda
Australia is behind the eight ball on healthy housing. Other governments, including in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand, acknowledge housing as an important contributor to the burden of disease. These countries have major policy initiatives focused on this agenda.
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Australian startup uses AI to shake up town planning
Three years in the making, Urpla aims to accelerate and simplify development applications without compromising on quality. The software utilises artificial intelligence technology to analyse and compare historical data and current data to get the right requirements and information that apply to each development site and development application.
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The suburbs are the future of post-COVID retail
The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a body blow to CBD retailers, but it’s just the latest of their challenges in recent years. They were already under pressure from cautious consumer spending, intense competition from online retailing and the growth of suburban “mega-centres”. Now, declining commuter foot traffic and an increase in people working from home present new challenges for CBD retailers. Lockdowns, changing work practices and the need for social distancing have left some of Australia’s largest city centres at times resembling ghost towns.
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Adelaide jumps up ranks to be Australia's most liveable city in new Ipsos survey
Central Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills have been ranked as the most liveable metropolitan areas in Australia in a new national survey. Market research company Ipsos found Adelaide was the only place that rated above average across 16 liveability factors, such as safety, affordable housing and health services.
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Disability access on the agenda as historical Maldon looks to the future
Residents of Maldon, in central Victoria, are being urged to write down their memories of the historic town to ensure its rich heritage is not lost when a streetscape revitalisation project gets underway.
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1st September 2020
Census year is the time to work together on a national settlement strategy
COVID-19 has raised many questions about how we plan our cities. The issues affect all of us, whether you are in Perth or 3,300 kilometres away in Sydney. Common issues suggest a common approach, but how might we achieve that?
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Unused buildings will make good housing in the world of COVID-19
We are entering an era of profound change in how we work, learn, socialise and live with COVID-19. Many people will adjust to this new world order and work remotely at home if they don’t have to attend an office or other workplace. This, in turn, will create an opportunity to adapt unused buildings, which were needed for the previous economy, for the new ways of living and working. Buildings could be transformed or redeployed through adaptive reuse for much-needed housing.
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Connected city streets mean healthier residents and communities
Street networks are about resilience, whether to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change or even a future with autonomous vehicles. Neighbourhoods with well-connected streets can evolve into more walkable, complete neighbourhoods or denser settlements as needed.
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'The reversal of gentrification': how Covid-19 could remake Australia's cities
Office buildings in Australian CBDs could be converted into residential living spaces, as a tanking commercial property market leads to a potential reversal of gentrification.
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Coronavirus didn't kill off the town pedestrian mall, it was already dead
It's telling when property owners are reducing the rents by 75 per cent and you still have empty buildings.
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Can 130,000 trees stop Sydney from becoming an urban heat island?
Thousands of trees are being planted across Sydney, Australia, to help lower temperatures across the city. The architects of the project hope that introducing a new canopy will help minimise the ‘urban heat island effect’, where metropolitan areas are significantly warmer than nearby rural spaces.
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Identifying the 'Paris-End' of town
Does the Paris-End of Melbourne’s CBD really look like the French capital, or does it more closely resemble a Brazilian city? And does Sydney’s Paris-End actually have more features in common with parts of the Ukraine and Russia? But what features do we consider when we decide whether cities are ‘Paris-like’?
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Ninety Mile Beach blocks to be compulsorily acquired by Wellington Shire Council ending decades-long dispute
Sold from the 1950s and inappropriate for development, Wellington Shire Council will compulsorily acquire the last 750 lots along a "slice of paradise on Victoria's Gold Coast". Before planning controls existed, land along the 25-kilometre stretch of coastline of Ninety Mile Beach in eastern Victoria was subdivided into almost 12,000 blocks.
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VIC - New DELWP Bushfire Planning Webpages
DELWP has launched new bushfire planning webpages that significantly restructure and expand the information on planning for bushfire. This includes new, updated, or deleted fact sheets and new Design Guidelines: Settlement Planning at the Bushfire Interface
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'Nonsensical': Bayside council considers ban on BBQs, backyard fires
The tongs are out after a Melbourne council moved to outlaw backyard barbecues and firepits, stoking swift public outrage. A proposed change to Bayside City Council's local law would see a ban on burning solid fuel, such as wood and charcoal, for backyard fires or outdoor cooking, like wood-fired pizza ovens.
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18 August 2020
Planning Minister Slams RBA on Apartments
The Planning Minister in New South Wales has slammed a paper which suggests that average building heights could be raised by up to 20 storeys in some Sydney suburbs, saying that the paper ignores wider costs associated with the removal of planning controls and relies excessively upon evidence presented by a property industry lobby group.
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City deals risk creating ‘trophy infrastucture’
City deals should create affordable rental housing and drive urban productivity rather than being used to fund “trophy infrastructure”, an urban planning expert says.
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Walking distance the grail as urban infill continues
The University of New South Wales has touted them as the gold standard of urban planning, but moves to create 20-minute suburbs in Western Australia seem slow going.
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1.4 million less than projected: how coronavirus could hit Australia's population in the next 20 years
In the early stages of COVID-19, much of the focus of demographers - who study populations - has understandably been on mortality and morbidity. But as the pandemic rolls on, attention is also now turning to the impact of COVID-19 on population size, structure and distribution.
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Sydney's biggest social experiment: The plan to turn Waterloo into a 'world-class precinct'
Waterloo's housing estate tenants are fighting the government's attempt to erase the towers from Sydney's skyline and to save their homes.
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Report finds that smart cities risk brain drain without diverse housing types
Without a diversity of housing types, tenures and prices, smart cities may reduce their economic competitiveness, while well-connected regional and non-metropolitan areas with affordable housing can contribute to innovation-led employment strategies.
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'Generational catastrophe': How COVID-19 could reshape Melbourne
One of the state's top planners says COVID-19 presents a "generational catastrophe" that will reshape every aspect of how Australian cities are planned, and put major developments in Melbourne into question.
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Public housing renewal can make tenants feel displaced in their home, even before any work begins
Public housing estate redevelopments that displace residents to other suburbs are highly disruptive whereas projects that allow them to remain are suggested to be better. We tested this assumption through two large, multi-year ethnographic studies with the residents of the Waterloo public housing estate in Sydney between 2010 and 2017.
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Parks and green spaces are important for our mental health – but we need to make sure that everyone can benefit
The health benefits of immersing ourselves in “greenspace” are now widely accepted. Living in areas with grass and trees has been linked to lower risk of various health conditions such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. As well as physical health, greenspace is associated with positive mental health.
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16th July 2020
Australian urban planners need to address racial and social inequities
The intersecting crises of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter injustices are prompting calls for urban planners to address their roles in perpetuating often fatal racial and social inequity. Former Melbourne urban planning academic Professor Carolyn Whitzman, an Adjunct Professor with the University of Ottawa, writes below on the “overwhelming whiteness of planning and design”, and says the Australian sector could learn from calls for change in Canada.
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Opinion: how urban design can help reduce homelessness
With homelessness affecting hundreds of thousands of Australians, this is no longer a situation we can ignore. It is time for Australia to follow the footsteps of countries such as France, Finland and Greece, to determine how we can implement urban planning tools to help alleviate homelessness.
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Amazon Greening German Cities, Volkswagen Reforesting Australia
The global economy — our increasingly integrated global society — is an interesting phenomenon. We have gotten quite used to it, but some matters bring its importance to the fore again. The coronavirus pandemic is one such example, but so are some positive efforts by major corporations to help green cities and countries where they operate.
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How drones and aerial vehicles could change cities
Drones, personal flying vehicles and air taxis may be part of our everyday life in the very near future. The introduction of these aerial craft into cities will require the built environment to change dramatically. Drones and other new aerial vehicles will require landing pads, charging points, and drone ports. They could usher in new styles of building, and lead to more sustainable design.
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Vertical cruise ships'? Here's how we can remake housing towers to be safer and better places to live
After 3,000 people in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were placed under the harshest coronavirus lockdown in Australia so far, acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly referred to the towers on July 5 as “vertical cruise ships.” The statement was a reference to the danger of contagion in these overcrowded buildings. However, such terms play into a long, international history of vilifying public housing estates. But high density is not the problem. It is the way such buildings are designed, maintained and funded.
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Climate emergency, COVID-19, Black Lives Matter: urban planning’s insurgent moment
Emphasising its critical role in responding to COVID-19, addressing systemic social-spatial inequities and tackling climate change, Roger Keil and Sean Hertel make the case for courageous urban planning in times of crisis.
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WA: Planning a new deck or patio? Now's the time as state slam-dunks new laws to stimulate building
The West Australian government has hustled to introduce and pass reforms representing the state's biggest-ever planning system overhaul, three years in the making and previously scheduled to take at least another two. The laws, introduced and passed in just five weeks, could see the time to get a big project off the ground reduced from years to months.
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NSW government releases 'shared backyard' vision for greener city
Parks and other open spaces should be within 200m of high-density homes and 400m from schools and workplaces, under new NSW government guidelines prioritising greenery in the wake of COVID-19. NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin said the deadly summer bushfires, combined with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, had highlighted the necessity for the first Greener Places policy.
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Melbourne’s slowing population growth could give us our last chance for real liveability
It’s something planners have known for a long time: not all of Melbourne’s suburbs are created equally, and our rapidly growing population has made this hard to address. But with population growth set to slow or stop amid the COVID-19-induced border closure, experts hope this temporary lull might allow us to rethink, catch up, and finally create a liveable Melbourne filled with elusive 20-minute neighbourhoods.
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Why Melbourne needs its own version of the Greater Sydney Commission
Melbourne’s global reputation for liveability does not resonate with many Melburnians. Its economy has slipped into per capita recession a couple of times over the past decade. Population growth has outpaced the provision of parkland and social housing. Many households must look to fringe areas to find housing they can afford.
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12 June 2020
Vilnius Shows How the Pandemic Is Already Remaking Cities
Vilnius isn’t the same city it was before the coronavirus. The Lithuanian capital has transformed into an open-air café, where hundreds of restaurants and bars can set up shop in its plazas, squares, and streets and serve customers from a safe distance. It also briefly operated a drive-in movie theater at the city’s idle airport, where people could gather in their cars to watch films projected against a giant screen. And next month, it will ban most cars from its Old Town to allocate more space to pedestrians.
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New look for urban density, design
New design guidelines and refined zoning could improve the rollout of medium density housing in established urban areas.
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How Urban Planners Are Reacting to Climate Change
From a design perspective, cities are in a unique position when it comes to climate change. Among the largest sources of emissions globally, they are also highly vulnerable to its consequences. According to one report, 70% of cities worldwide are already dealing with the effects of climate change, and nearly all cities face some kind of risk. But they are also potentially powerful agents of change. Policy at the national level has moved painfully slow in most countries, but urban areas have the authority to make meaningful changes in land use and zoning, transportation, green space, and energy policy.
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Our post-pandemic landscapes must be more equitable by design
The disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis on the poor and marginalised have helped to ignite protests exposing long-standing inequalities. Much of this injustice is manifest in the way we design and regulate our cities.
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Road rage runs deep: How can we overcome the motorist-cyclist divide?
We talk frequently about the value of cycling lanes but what are the values that underpin obstacles to inclusive traffic systems? New research suggests that divisions between motorists and cyclists run deep, and terms such as ‘road rage’ use situational language to mask the real problem.
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Urban planning expert defends Surfers Paradise from 'sneering' Gold Coast locals
Surfers Paradise is marketed as a jewel in the crown of Gold Coast tourism, but an online survey has found locals avoid taking visitors to the Glitter Strip because they believe it is dirty and has insufficient parking.
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The Post-Pandemic Urban Future Is Already Here
The coronavirus crisis stands to dramatically reshape cities around the world. But the biggest revolutions in urban space may have begun before the pandemic.
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Small is beautiful: Planning for a post-Covid world
Is the ‘20-minute neighbourhood’ the solution to the impacts that the coronavirus epidemic is having on our lives?
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The seven types of Perth suburbs that coped best with the pandemic shutdown
McMansion-dwellers in suburbs far from jobs and services and uninviting to pedestrians fared badly during shutdowns, says a prominent Perth urban planner; meanwhile, residents in self-sufficient neighbourhoods with compact homes were much better equipped.
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1 June 2020
The Car Is Like A Virus, Says Urban Planner But This Is One Pandemic That Politicians Can Prevent
Let me introduce you to Austrian civil engineer Dr. Hermann Knoflacher. This urban planner once led the Institute for Transport Planning and Technology at the Vienna University of Technology. Motor centric guy, then? Not a bit; he has described the car as a “virus” infecting the planet. Sound familiar?
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How urban planners' preference for male trees has made your hay fever worse
Horticulturists urge better sex mix of city trees to mitigate rising asthma and CO2 pollution levels.
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The coronavirus crisis is reshaping the world. One transformation that might be here to stay? How our restaurants, gyms, bars and parks are designed – and how we use them.
As many countries ease lockdown restrictions, residents are returning to old spaces that now feel unfamiliar. The places themselves did not change – but from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, the way we are allowed to navigate them is going to be radically different.
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COVID-19: How past crises are helping the world's cities to respond and rebuild
Advocates of "urban resilience" say the holistic approach - which has gained traction around the world in recent years - can improve how cities handle all manner of shocks and stresses. In trying to build resilience, cities analyse complex systems and how their different parts might be affected by a range of threats. The aim is to keep residents, property, infrastructure and nature safe - and emerge stronger from a crisis.
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Governments urged to buy up apartments to boost affordable housing stocks
State and federal governments have been urged to spend big on unsold apartments and convert them into affordable housing properties to support the economic recovery.
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Coronavirus self-isolation highlights poorly laid-out neighbourhoods, experts say
As we retreat into our homes and our worlds shrink to the size of our immediate neighbourhoods, experts say issues with the way our houses, towns, suburbs and cities are set up will come into sharp focus.
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Urgent need to stimulate NSW private sector construction work before it is too late
The value of private construction activity has dropped sharply in the first three months of 2020 according to ABS data released today. But when you look at the value of construction per capita, it is clear that the construction sector in NSW is in freefall and needs urgent support or the NSW economy is in big trouble. What is even more scary is that this data covers construction activity in January, February and March – two thirds of which is before the COVID-19 close down was initiated. There is an urgent need for an unlocking of any private sector capital investment which is ready to commit to jobs and growth in this important jobs-rich sector of our economy.
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The sleeper issue that could collapse the commercial property market
In the enthusiasm of Governments around the nation to be pro-active with financial support for COVID-19, commercial landlords have been abandoned – particularly those who rely on small to medium sized enterprises for their income. Contract law has been tipped on its head. Commercial property lessors now must bear the burden of the financial stress of their tenants. In the context of COVID-19, this seems, superficially, a case of sharing the pain in the “unprecedented” economic situation. But the precedent is now established – and it is dangerous.
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14 May 2020
Without migrant buyers, Australia's property market is expected to struggle for 'several years'
The lack of migration to Australia due to coronavirus is expected to hit the property market hard and experts say there is no knowing how long it will take to bounce back.
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Planning approvals to stay the course
Planning Ministers around Australia have agreed to a set of principles to ensure approvals maintain a regular pace throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A city of homebodies? How coronavirus will change Sydney
How coronavirus will change the face of urban planning in Sydney.
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Could Melbourne become the Copenhagen of the south?
Imagine a city with beautiful and protected public squares and boulevards. A city obsessed with good design and urban planning, where medium density neighbourhoods are walkable and well serviced by public transport.
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More cycleways, streets to shut, footpaths widened under NSW's COVID-19 plan
Local councils will be encouraged to widen walkways, close roads and create new cycle paths under a new state government scheme designed to accommodate greater use of public outdoor space.
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Airport cities and aerotropolises after the COVID-19 pandemic
What should happen to all the airport cities and aerotropolises currently being built or planned? How can airports be more resilient in the future? How can airport cities and aerotropolises still be business models for the future? What needs to be done now to prepare for a post-pandemic world?
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Melbourne in a post-pandemic world: how the virus could transform the city
It’s early days but urban planners are already pondering the marks that will be left by COVID-19.
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The Future of Infrastructure: Looking Beyond 2020
Rapid changes in population growth, technological development and customer expectations all present significant challenges to infrastructure provision both today and looking into the future beyond 2020.
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Deputy Mayor challenges staff over developer meetings
Central Coast Council planning staff have attended 22 meetings of a group that represents the interests of developers. However, they have not attended any meetings of other stakeholder groups over the same two and half year period..
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Our cities owe much of their surviving heritage to Jack Mundey
Jack Mundey, who has died at the age of 90, was a pioneer of the Australian heritage movement. As well as contributing to labor and environmental politics, Mundey reconceived of the ways that Australians related to their cities and heritage places.
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14 April 2020
Land use census platform improves council planning
A cloud-based technology that helps local governments understand their municipalities and improve urban planning is now available to councils across Australia after being redeveloped by Melbourne City Council.
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Urban planning in a post-pandemic world
Urban living in a post-pandemic world will be more local, compact, pedestrian-friendly and connected, according to a leading urban planner.
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The average regional city resident lacks good access to two-thirds of community services, and liveability suffers
In research for the newly launched Australian Urban Observatory we found people living in urban neighbourhoods of regional cities have satisfactory access to only 31% (five of 16) of essential community services on average.
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NSW Fast Tracks Construction and Development Planning
New South Wales will fast-track the planning process for development applications in a bid to keep the construction sector ticking, as it maintains a pipeline of work through the Covid-19 crisis.
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Coronavirus self-isolation highlights poorly laid-out neighbourhoods, experts say
As we retreat into our homes and our worlds shrink to the size of our immediate neighbourhoods, experts say issues with the way our houses, towns, suburbs and cities are set up will come into sharp focus.
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Disasters, Planning and Australian Tourism
Australia’s devastating bushfire season of 2019-2020 highlights our country’s vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change. The events also impact on global perceptions of Australia; the fires clash with the idea that we are a safe tourist destination. And just as many communities begin to work toward recovery – a second tourism blow for the country emerged – COVID-19.
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5th March 2020
Plans for high towers dwarfing Sydney's Central station spark concerns
Plans to allow for buildings up to 206 metres high at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD, including a 39-storey tower planned for tech giant Atlassian, have stoked fears that they will dwarf the landmark Central railway station and lead to "adverse visual impacts". An area named the western gateway is the first stage of a massive redevelopment of the 24-hectare Central precinct, which extends from the railway station to Cleveland Street.
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City of Sydney endorses planning control which could see skyline rise by 100 metres
The City of Sydney has endorsed changes to planning controls in Sydney's CBD which could see the city's skyline rise by about 100 metres. The changes will remove the 235-metre cap on building height limits and could allow for towers in Barangaroo, Central Station, Circular Quay and Town Hall to be as high as 330 metres..
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Crestwood defies odds to celebrate 50 years as the first 'perfect' Radburn neighbourhood in the world.
A "catastrophe", "total disaster", a "crazy, ludicrous living hell" — that's how politicians described some of Australia's most radically designed neighbourhoods.
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“This is not a wicked problem”: Healthabitat is making housing better for Australia’s Indigenous communities
Healthabitat, a non-profit company has been working for more than three decades to identify a quantifiable link between housing and health in remote Aboriginal communities, and to offer solutions to clearly articulated, fixable problems. The company applies a scientific approach to what some have seen as a social and cultural problem.
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Environmental concerns get top billing in Infrastructure Australia priority list for first time
Rising sea levels, water security and waste management are among the environmental challenges that Infrastructure Australia has, for the first time, elevated to the top tier of its priorities list.
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Sea level rise will see 40pc of Australia's beaches lost, predicts new study
The issue for many popular beaches both in Australia and around the world, is that we've built towns, cities and infrastructure right up to the sand. Many coastal systems have already lost their natural capacity to accommodate or recover from erosion, as the backshore is heavily occupied by human settlements.
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Gladstone to run on gas-green hydrogen blend as gigawatt-scale plans take shape
Gladstone set to become the nation’s green hydrogen hotspot with two new projects seeking to tap the opportunities in the domestic supply of zero-emissions gas and in the emerging export market. Located in central Queensland, Gladstone is set to become the first entire city in the nation to be on a blend of natural gas and hydrogen.
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SA Government "hits pause" on "generational" planning reforms
The Planning and Design Code – and a corresponding ePlanning framework – was causing friction among councils and the building industry, with the Local Government Association and Urban Development Institute of Australia among those calling for the deadline to be wound back.
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Victoria to introduce container deposit scheme as part of recycling industry overhaul
The Victorian Government will begin rolling out a four-bin kerbside recycling scheme across the state next year and introduce a container deposit scheme by 2023 as part of a $129 million overhaul of Victoria's recycling industry.
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Warning over 'heat island' effect in cities as tree coverage declines
Australian cities are increasingly becoming concrete jungles as trees and canopy coverage disappear, according to experts who warn this is contributing to an urban "heat island" effect.
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21 February 2020
There's no need to give up on crowded cities — we can make density so much better
The idea that we should decentralise our population has come up many times in Australia. Recently, the National Farmers' Federation president pushed the notion, calling for a shift to the regions. And the premise is this: city living is unpleasant. Roads are jammed, housing is expensive and it's all so much nicer out in the country. We need to "spread out"...
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Urban planners say China's effort to quarantine 35 million people could help contain the coronavirus outbreak — but it's impossible to seal off a city
Most urban planners don’t design a city with the idea of sealing it off. Many advocate for the opposite: making cities as free-flowing as possible to encourage tourism and attract workers.
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WA tourist town of Denham to become zero-emission community powered by hydrogen
The small coastal town of Denham, in Western Australia's Shark Bay world heritage area, could become a zero-emission community as it prepares to trial a hydrogen plant powered by solar energy.
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Melbourne is already Australia’s biggest city
The only reason why Sydney is currently Australia’s biggest city is because the official boundaries used to draw the city limits are bogus.
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Toyota unveils plan to build 'city of the future' near Mount Fuji
Toyota has unveiled plans to build a sustainable “city of the future” near Mount Fuji that will run on hydrogen fuel cells and become a living laboratory for self-driving vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence.
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Beyond the backyard - The sprawling suburban idyll is a victim of our modern lifestyle
The backyard is a victim of the modern, cosmopolitan lifestyle embraced by a nation of city dwellers who perversely want less and less to do with one another..
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Mandurah buys up land from developers to manage a population growth surge
In 2006, the city noticed the predicted growth and began a policy of buying bushland off developers to retain for community use.
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Are eucalypts too dangerous for our suburbs?
Downed trees have caused widespread disruption for thousands of residents recovering from severe storms in recent weeks, fuelling renewed debate about how to better protect communities from the elements. As the clean-up continues, concerns around the planting of eucalyptus trees in urban areas are being voiced.
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Bendigo's fire risk likely to rise in fringe suburbs: expert
The Country Fire Authority has warned the City of Greater Bendigo to avoid development in high risk bushland areas as part of its advisory role. CFA North West Region Manager Community Safety David Allen said the authority worked with the city's strategic planners to advise on bushfire safety for future growth.
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6th February 2020
Darwin’s ‘smart city’ project is about surveillance and control
Darwin City Council installed a network of hundreds of new devices across the centre of the city last year. This web of “smart” lights, environmental sensors and video cameras is designed to give the council more power to monitor and manage urban places – and the people who occupy them.
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Paved for the people: In Melbourne, a parking lot has become a public square
Prahran Square addresses a desperate need to provide safe space for a growing local community. Located in a suburb just south-east of Melbourne, the new 10,000 square metre public space occupies a once unremarkable asphalt carpark. .
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High-rise families rely on child-friendly neighbourhoods
For families living in apartments, public playgrounds aren’t only an attraction but an essential counter-balance to their life within high-rises. With more apartment-dwelling families than ever, planning guidelines need to create and safeguard child-friendly, outdoor public space..
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Perth developer’s plan to turn sleepy suburban shops into $100 million mega-mall
A sprawling, sleepy suburban shopping centre whose biggest offering for three decades has been a Coles and a Kmart is being transformed into Perth’s latest “town centre” complete with a mega-mall, apartments, and a family entertainment precinct..
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E-scooters – cities should embrace them
Large ungainly versions of the childhood microscooter have started to populate cities around the world. These electric scooters can be seen dotting streets, parks, pavements all over. Many people own them individually, and hire schemes in some cities mean that they are increasingly available for more general use too.
E-scooters are now legal in a growing number of countries, though there are very different rules as to where they can be used. Sometimes, riders are allowed to use pedestrian walks, sometimes roads, and sometimes cycle tracks. But the emerging consensus is that e-scooters should be treated as bicycles..
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Why Australian road rules should be rewritten to put walking first
You are walking east on a footpath and come to an unmarked intersection without traffic signals. A vehicle is driving north, across your path. Who has right of way in Australia?.
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How Long Will Australia Be Livable?
Facing a future of fire, drought, and rising oceans, Australians will have to weigh the choice between getting out early or staying to fight.
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Fiona Simson's 2020s vision: let's double the population outside capital cities
No longer can we entertain platitudes and have half-hearted attempts at ‘decentralisation’. We need to set a goal and spread out.
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Australia home to three of the world’s 21 smartest cities
Three Australian cities have been recognised among the world’s top 21 smart cities. Adelaide, Prospect and the Sunshine Coast have won places among ‘Smart21’, administered by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a global think tank. This is the third consecutive year of making the Smart21 for the City of Adelaide, and marks a significant step to greater recognition as an Intelligent Community..
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29 Nov 2019
GOD save us: greenspace-oriented development could make higher density attractive
Around the world, the vast majority of people are flocking to cities not to dwell in their centres but to live in the new suburbs expanding their outer limits. Reflecting this, from 2000 to 2015, the expansion of urbanised land worldwide outpaced urban population growth. The result is unprecedented urban sprawl. Public resistance to so-called infill development is unlikely to be overcome without a major change in how cities approach urban densification. We advocate greenspace-oriented development, or GOD, which provides substantial, public green spaces to serve surrounding higher-density neighbourhoods..
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How to turn Auckland's inner city streets into public spaces people can enjoy
The streets of downtown Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, are about to be transformed. A masterplan for the city centre was approved back in 2012, and now a proposed design is open for feedback. The idea behind this masterplan is to design the central city as a cohesive public space rather than simply the sum of a thousand independent decisions..
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Canberra developers say they aren't to blame for bad buildings, as Government plans 'dodgy developer' ban
Some of Canberra's largest property developers have suggested the ACT Government should stop hassling head office and get out on the construction site if it wants to improve building quality. The criticism has come in response to proposed laws designed to tackle "dodgy" property developers escaping accountability for poor quality work.
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Trendy inner-city suburbs get cash splash at outer suburbs' expense: report
In an audit of all urban planning policies in Australia a 30-Year-Plan came out as one of the best examples of best practice. However, there has been a lot of attention on 10 kilometres around the city centre.
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What ever happened to (Australian) urbanism?
With Australia’s population set to almost double by 2066, the handwringing over increased density and sprawl will only increase. Yet these circumstances offer architects and urban planners an opportunity for courageous creativity..
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Planning Greater Sydney
The creation of a dedicated commission to oversee the planning of Greater Sydney presents an invaluable opportunity to implement an integrated, spatial plan underpinned by public transport and civic infrastructure. But do our conventional planning methods meet the needs of our evolving cities?
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How a city's 'latte line' exposes Australia's economic divide
If there’s a single phrase that’s had its day, it’s “latte sippers”, frequently used by right-wing pundits living in exclusive areas of Melbourne and Sydney to disparage so-called lefties and greenies in gentrifying inner-city areas. Surprising then, to learn that the term “latte line” is commonly used by town planners and economists to describe a hypothetical boundary separating the haves from the have-nots..
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Premier decrees mandatory e-planning
It will become a mandatory for metropolitan councils to use the NSW government’s e-planning and reporting system from next year, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced..
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In the path of disaster: The big causes of bushfires that most of us are missing
A decade after the deadly Black Saturday bushfires devastated Kinglake, razing entire streets of the rural township north-east of Melbourne, population density in some of the worst-hit areas is now much higher than before the firestorm hit..
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Driverless vehicles and pedestrians don't mix. So how do we re-arrange our cities?
Videos showing autonomous or self-driving vehicles weaving in and out of crossroads at speed without colliding suggest this technology will solve traffic problems. You almost never see pedestrians or cyclists in these videos. The reality is that they don’t fit..
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7 Nov 2019
No Australian city has a long-term vision for living sustainably. We can't go on like this
International and internal migration trends have driven rapid growth in the big cities, especially Melbourne and Sydney. This has created major problems with providing adequate housing, infrastructure and services. The fundamental issue is the reluctance of urban communities and their leaders to discuss what might be sustainable populations..
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Using economics to improve urban planning
Urban economics can help transform the way local councils approach planning proposals, enabling them to take into consideration economic assessments and leading to better decision making, an expert says..
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'Liveable and loveable': A new approach to planning for Sydney
Sydney’s natural beauty might be the envy of the world, but parts of the city are not "loveable" because of the dominance of the car, according to a leading urban planner. Stephen Moore, the director of Roberts Day, said Sydney’s older neighbourhoods were superior to newer suburbs based on his concept of the loveable city.
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Is a design in Bankstown the solution to Australia’s population growth?
Sydney’s Bankstown may have the answer with an integrated transport and place framework by Australian urban planning and design practice RobertsDay. The project has received community support, and will result in 30 percent more pedestrian space, 84 percent more street trees, and an additional 4.2km of cycle paths. Traffic modelling predicts that the changes would move 16 percent of traffic from the CBD without any negative impact on travel times or level of service..
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You can’t boost Australia’s north to 5 million people without a proper plan
Any moves to greatly increase the population of northern Australian by 2060 could have a devastating impact on the local environment without long-term careful planning by all tiers of government. That’s the finding of research that looked at several scenarios to increase the population of the north to 5 million people..
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How we feel about our cars means the road to a driverless future may not be smooth
Autonomous vehicles operating on a network would allow traffic to move safely and seamlessly through cities. They would use less space per vehicle. Traffic flow would be unhindered by traffic lights or other traditional driver signals. More efficient transportation would use less fuel. Urban spaces could be repurposed as parking needs virtually disappear.
But this utopian vision depends on a range of factors. In particular, these predictions largely rely on how current car drivers respond to the advent of autonomous vehicles..
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The politics of value: good planning makes dollars and sense
Phoebe Harrison explores how planners and planning have a crucial role to play in reviving trust in public institutions and the democratic systems that should be building our cities.
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Günther Vogt and the sensory city
Zurich-based landscape architect Günther Vogt is bringing nature and consideration of intimate human experience into big urban infrastructure projects..
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Why isn't Australia planning new cities?
Other countries are planning new cities using technological innovation to achieve more sustainable development. Why Australia’s focus is almost solely on growing our existing metropolises?
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10 Oct 2019
Innovative approach to urban planning launched in WA
Urban planning and design practice RobertsDay is introducing a radical new way of considering local planning proposals, enabling local governments to undertake economic assessments, rationally forecast future revenues and improve their financial capacity to invest back into their communities. The result, says the practice, allows the “creating happier and healthier neighbourhoods – and more autonomous and fiscally independent local governments.”.
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NSW - Missing Middle Delay Allows Councils To Define Appropriate Locations For Townhouses
“The implementation of the Missing Middle town house code in NSW has been poorly communicated to the Sydney community.” says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson. “It will be some years since the initial announcement by the NSW Government that a new complying code for town houses and terrace houses will increase density without the need for taller towers. But the community and council reaction was that the code could destroy the character of the existing low rise suburbs.”
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Urban squeeze pushes great Australian dream to the fringes
A landmark report released by the CSIRO earlier this year — "Australia 2060" — signalled the country might face a "slow decline" if it failed to take action on a number of economic, social and environmental factors. The report said an urban shift towards density, creating a wider mix of housing options and improving transport infrastructure, were among the changes needed.
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Shh! Don't mention the public housing shortage. But no serious action on homelessness can ignore it
Today, October 10, is World Homeless Day. Next week the Council to Homeless Persons will convene the Victorian Homelessness Conference to discuss options for ending homelessness. On the program are presentations and discussions about Aboriginal homelessness, youth homelessness, the links between mental health and homelessness, the NDIS, and a debate about tiny homes. Nowhere is there any mention of, or provision for discussion about, public housing.
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Why we need 'crazy' ideas for new city parks
Two seemingly unrelated but important things happened in Melbourne last week. One was a memorial service for David Yencken AO; the other was the exhibition opening of the Future Park Design Ideas Competition. The connection between the two is that both gave us radical ideas for Melbourne’s open space.
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Global bank urges cities to invest in new infrastructure to adapt to climate change
The impacts of climate change on weather, sea levels, food and water supplies should be seen as an investment opportunity for our cities, says global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. In a report out last month the bank says cities need to adapt to become more resilient to climate change and this could “drive one of the largest infrastructure build-outs in history”.
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A blueprint for Melbourne’s public transport future
Public transport is not keeping pace with Melbourne’s rapid population growth. New suburbs emerge without adequate train and bus services, more and more motor vehicles clog the roads, train and tram passengers become frustrated at extended travel times and crowding while tired airport arrivals cannot get fast transfers to their destinations..
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26 Sept 2019
It's time to plan a national settlement strategy
While Australia has never had a formal population policy – immigration policy has emerged as its proxy, and the disconnect between urban planning and immigration is generating massive economic, social and environmental consequences. In this context, it is heartening that the nation’s treasurers have recently agreed to work together to develop a national population and planning framework.
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Urban planner’s left-field idea to boost infrastructure: More immigration
Australia must increase its migrant intake if it is to fund its infrastructure splurge and compete on the world stage, an urban planner has claimed.
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Why urban sprawl is harmful to your health
Ten per cent of Australians live in homes harmful to their health, according to planning experts, who argue health should be at the forefront of planning laws and regulations..
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Working the system: 3 ways planners can defy the odds to promote good health for all of us
We know better urban planning can encourage healthier behaviours. Providing infrastructure for walking and cycling is a prime example. Yet there are other, often overlooked, ways that urban planners are on the front line when it comes to promoting the health of Australians. In particular, the way cities are planned can reduce inequities in both access to health services and health outcomes. This has important implications for the health of individuals and their communities..
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Superblocks are transforming Barcelona. They might work in Australian cities too
The Spanish city of Barcelona has pioneered an innovative approach to managing traffic, freeing up public space and promoting walking and cycling. The “superblocks” model produces considerable health and economic benefits, according to newly published research, and could be applied in Australian cities too..
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People want and need more housing choice. It's about time governments stood up to deliver it
Australians need greater housing diversity to meet their current and future housing needs. Yet increasing diversity, and meeting the need for more smaller dwellings in particular, has proved surprisingly difficult to achieve. Vested interests – both the big end of town and traditionalists seeking to preserve Australians’ suburban way of life – have come together in a rare alliance to argue against policies to deliver more diverse housing..
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Renegade gardeners take fight to councils in race to beat the heat
Between 2013 and 2017 green areas in Australia's capital cities and regional areas fell by around 2 per cent, according to a study by Marco Amati, environmental scientist and associate professor of International Planning at RMIT's Centre for Urban Research. That means trees, shrubs and grass have been lost and not replaced over that five-year period. This might not sound much until you put it into perspective. "It's the equivalent of 42 Melbourne Cricket Grounds being lost every day during that period," said Amati.
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Nation is sleepwalking towards a three-megacity debacle
The impact of the Commonwealth not extending its population planning efforts beyond adjusting immigration rates is being deeply felt across Australia. A recent Infrastructure Australia audit warned that business-as-usual growth would incur substantial losses in national productivity – from a doubling of congestion costs to $38.8 billion in the next 12 years to a deterioration in employment choices and work-life balance..
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What changes are needed to get more Australians on their bikes?
Cities in Australia and overseas are building and planning cycling superhighways to encourage people to use pedal power to get around. But increasing the number of cycling commuters will require cultural change as well as infrastructure investment.
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Could rooftop gardens save our cities from climate change?
Rooftop gardens could help cool our cities amid climate change, but archaic planning laws are holding back a green revolution.
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5th Sept 2019
Flexible working, the neglected congestion-busting solution for our cities
Traffic congestion is one of the most significant challenges facing our cities. Melbourne’s population is growing by around 325 people a day and is projected to overtake Sydney’s within a decade. Identified as the most congested city in the country, this was a factor in Melbourne losing its seven-year grip on the “world’s most liveable city” title last year. One obvious solution to traffic congestion, caused mostly by workers commuting to jobs in the city centre during peak hours, might appear to be building more, or bigger, roads. But a less obvious answer, and potentially a more cost-effective one, might be to increase flexible working arrangements.
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A patchwork of City Deals or a national settlement strategy: what's best for our growing cities?
Australia has no enduring tradition of having a national urban policy, unlike the UK, from where we sometimes import policies. The Commonwealth government has a long history of intervening in cities, from addressing housing shortages to funding urban infrastructure, but has shied away from a formal national settlement strategy.
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Safety in the age of the smart city
Urban planners, regional and state governments, and businesses welcoming this influx have to make important decisions about safety and security in the age of the smart megacity, writes George Moawad.
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Electric scooters are polluters, study finds
Electric scooters are touted by manufacturers as an environmentally friendly transport option, but a US study has shown they may actually increase emissions by drawing people away from walking, cycling and public transport.
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Documents expose land deal behind Victoria's Western Highway sacred trees dispute
A contentious highway upgrade has again come under scrutiny after revelations a land deal was struck between Victoria's roads department and the former Aboriginal cultural heritage authority which approved the development.
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Growing pains: Australia's squeezed suburbs
It took Treasurer Josh Frydenberg 34 minutes to deliver his first budget to the House of Representatives in early April. As he outlined the government's plans to spend an extra $23 billion on infrastructure to cope with a growing nation, an additional 36 people moved to Australia from a distant land. In the year leading up to his speech, in the Treasurer's home town of Melbourne, the total population swelled by almost 120,000, or 327 people a day. The greater Sydney area added more than 93,000 residents, or 256 people daily
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This is where 68% of the world’s population will live by 2050
Thirty years from now it’s expected that most of the global population will live in urban areas, which presents big business for the entire planning supply chain – if they play their cards right.
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Three ways to fix the problems caused by rezoning inner-city industrial land for mixed-use apartments
Can urban policy make room for manufacturing and create real diversity and a mix of employment opportunities in our cities?
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Ignore liveable cities rankings – they do citizens a disservice by trying to quantify urban life
Though some efforts are being made to address the flaws in city rankings, they continue to be touted as a viable means of urban analysis. But as someone who scrutinises cities closely and researches the people who live in them, I think it’s time to ignore city rankings because they do more harm than good.
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What sort of housing do older Australians want and where do they want to live?
A new report has shed light on older Australians’ housing aspirations and looks at what can be done to ensure future supply matches demand.
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31 January 2019
City of Nedlands forced to increase housing density by Planning Minister Rita Saffioti
The West Australian Government will compel the City of Nedlands to change its outdated town planning scheme after years of community and council opposition to higher density housing in the affluent western suburb.
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Our cities fall short on sustainability, but planning innovations offer local solution
Thirty years after the landmark Brundtland report, the debate on urban sustainability continues. Urban planners are still grappling with the challenges of making our cities sustainable.
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Let the locals loose: Perth council launches radical planning strategy
In a WA first a Perth council has upended the usual planning process, placing community ideas front and centre and bucking a planning system that’s increasingly angered residents in recent years.
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The new ways to get citizens involved in urban design
Cities are serious business – economic powerhouses with their own delicate ecosystems – but that doesn't mean designing them shouldn't be fun. In Barcelona they made it a game...
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Why walkable CBDs are good for business and could make Australian cities richer
The ease with which people can move around their local central business district (CBD), even just to meet for coffee, will play an important role in the future success of business in Australia, a leading cities expert says.
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+ Infrastructure falls further behind as migrants crush-load cities
Engineers Australia last year estimated the infrastructure deficit — classified as the amount needed to bring the nation up to scratch — at $800bn. Infrastructure Partnerships Australia (IPA), the private think tank, has put the figure at $770bn…. Eight of the top nine projects identified by Infrastructure Australia as being a ‘high priority’ are designed to ease urban congestion, which is a growing problem in the nation’s expanding city centres…
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Urban planning is failing children and breaching their human rights – here’s what needs to be done
Children are being left out of decisions about the environments created around them, when really, their needs should be at the heart of them.
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23 January 2019
Buildings produce 25% of Australia's emissions. What will it take to make them `green' - and who'll pay?
In signing the Paris Climate Agreement, the Australian government committed to a global goal of zero net emissions by 2050. Australia's promised reductions to 2030, on a per person and emissions intensity basis, exceed even the targets set by the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea and the European Union. But are we on the right track to achieve our 2030 target of 26-28% below 2005 levels? With one of the highest population growth rates in the developed world, this represents at least a 50% reduction in emissions per person over the next dozen years.
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The big lesson from Opal Tower is that badly built apartments aren't only an issue for residents
The saga of Opal Tower, the 36-storey Sydney apartment building evacuated on Christmas Eve after frightening cracking, has helped to expose the deep cracks in Australia's approach to building apartments. An interim engineering assessment released yesterday indicates concrete panels cracked due to their manufacture and assembly deviating from the original design. Though the building is structurally sound and in no danger of collapse, repairing the faults will be costly, slow and disruptive to residents.
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How Darling Harbour was botched (and could be reborn)
More towers at Sydney's Darling Harbour are among redevelopment plans for the inner city waterfront precinct and this has prompted recent debate. Plans open for public commentary include proposals for new tall buildings at Cockle Bay and at the Harbourside Shopping Centre. Critics include Russell Hand and Christopher Ashworth, senior planners at the City of Sydney, who have lodged formal objections.
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Refuge City, a new kind of city for our times
Australia is one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world. Nonetheless, in recent times many Australians have come to regard population growth, and particularly immigration, as a problem - at best - to be solved. In contrast, we believe population growth and migration present a creative opportunity to shape new Australian cities unlike any we have built to date.
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Meet Australia's data-powered suburbs
Governments are leveraging data insights from social media to quantify the urban life of suburbs, improve planning and boost tourism. At the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, officials have been leveraging social media data to profile the services that are popular in the community to inform their planning decisions. With one of the most culturally diverse communities in Sydney, the council hoped to better understand the different services that various segments of the community valued.
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Urban planners call for female-friendly cities
Following the death of Aiia Maasarwe, advocates and city planners say more must be done to make cities safe for women.
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Digital urban planning: twins help make sense of smart cities
In an age of rapid urban growth and expansion, planning is crucial to a city's ability to be competitive while supporting the wellbeing of its citizens. This is where digital twins come in handy. Would the perfect city have open spaces and plenty of natural light? Would travel between any two parts be simple and fast? Would development be structured and sympathetic to the rest of the city? These issues and many more could be resolved by generating a digital replica - a virtual city that becomes the basis for all future change and growth.
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Urban Planning Needs to Re-Center the Human
In the web magazine Real Life, David A. Banks offers a brief history of urban planning as a discipline, tracing its utopian origins, its taming institutionalization, and its current focus on data and technology. Banks argues that urban planning needs to return to its roots, imagining cities as "the stages that society plays out on" rather than mere engines of capitalism.
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Consistency needed on the location of new housing in Sydney for communities and industry
The announcement by the NSW Opposition that they will change the current distribution of new housing across metropolitan Sydney will lead to uncertainty for the development industry and for communities.
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6 December 2018
Health impacts and murky decision-making feed public distrust of projects like WestConnex
WestConnex, the most expensive piece of transport infrastructure being built in Australia, looms large over the next New South Wales election. Construction is well under way, fuelling community concern about the project's impact on their health and wellbeing. The NSW Coalition government was elected in 2011 on a promise to deliver major infrastructure including a road for Sydney. Attention should have been paid to the adage that history repeats itself. The M5 East project became a major headache for the previous Labor administration because of concerns about the impact of tunnel emissions on human health.
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Why autonomous vehicles won’t reduce our dependence on cars in cities
The technology of autonomous vehicles (AVs) is progressing rapidly, but have we really thought through how they’ll work in reality? In its report on AVs in Australia, Austroads (the association of Australasian road transport and traffic agencies) paints both positive and negative scenarios for the future. The positive scenario suggests that AVs could reduce car ownership and use thanks to a fleet of shared and connected AVs. These AVs would roam the city, filling in gaps in the timetables and fixed routes of a superior and cheaper public transport network.
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Why daily doses of nature in the city matter for people and the planet
The environmental movement is shifting away from focusing solely on raising awareness about environmental issues. Many environmental agencies and organisations now also aim to connect people with nature, and our new research suggests daily doses of urban nature may be the key to this for the majority who live in cities.
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Melbourne Council unveils plans for new CBD 'landmark'
The City of Melbourne will consider a behemoth redevelopment project designed to rejuvenate almost an entire CBD block, with ambitious plans for it to become the city's most sustainable urban landmark. The $232 million plan, which councillors will vote on at a council meeting next Monday, proposes to knock down the 50-year-old Council House 1 on Little Collins Street and surrounding buildings, while restoring the adjoining heritage-listed Commonwealth Bank building, to create a new civic precinct.
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Just how `city smart' are local governments in Queensland?
Many places around the world claim to be a "smart city", but what that means is often unclear. A smart city is widely seen as an urban area that uses technology to enhance performance and the quality of its services. In other words, it's a happy marriage of technology and the city. Before we look at what is being planned in Australia and what is being done overseas, an important question is: How smart are our cities now? The answer enables our cities to benchmark where we are now and then track progress over time. We recently conducted a study to evaluate the smartness of all local government areas in Queensland.
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The Technologies Building The Smart Cities of The Future
By 2050, 68 percent of the total global population will live in cities, according to the United Nations. By then, the world population will be 9.7 billion and 11.2 billion by 2100. The updated report from the United Nations states that currently, 55 percent of the world's population lives in urban areas. That means around 2.5 billion more people will be living in cities by 2050.
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Design for flooding: how cities can make room for water
Science is clearly showing that the world is shifting towards a more unstable climate. Weather events like the flash floods in Sydney last week will be more frequent and extreme, while the intervals between them will become shorter. With rising sea levels and frequent floods, water landscapes will become part of our urban routine.
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Coastal fast rail best for urban centres outside Sydney
The NSW Government announcement about a network of fast trains to centres outside Sydney would stimulate growth outside Sydney. "The announcement by NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, that the government is looking at a network of fast train routes out of Sydney would lead to growth in regional cities." Says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson "The most likely areas to be attractive for increased development will be the coastal centres including Nowra, Wollongong, Gosford and Newcastle."
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Is infrastructure why Victorian voters swung so decisively to Labor?
There're many theories purporting to explain Saturday's stunning electoral swing to Victoria's incumbent Labor Government. A popular explanation is the lacklustre performance of Coalition leader, Mathew Guy, which also conveniently deflects blame from the conservative national government. Others argue it's a clear rejection of the Opposition's stand on climate change, injecting rooms and law order. Some reckon it's due to Premier Daniel Andrews progressive stand on key issues in education, social policy and health.
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Is growth in driving really outstripping surging population?
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) released a report last week comparing historical growth in driving and public transport patronage in Melbourne against growth in population. Contrary to the clickbait headline in The Age claiming driving is growing faster than population (see Melbourne's traffic growth outstrips population surge), the PTUA's report showed the opposite: car travel has been growing slower than population since 2004.
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23 November 2018
Is growth in driving really outstripping surging population?
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) released a report last week comparing historical growth in driving and public transport patronage in Melbourne against growth in population. Contrary to the clickbait headline in The Age claiming driving is growing faster than population, the PTUA's report showed the opposite: car travel has been growing slower than population since 2004.
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When Flemington Markets relocate to the Aerotropolis the site can become a new green urban village
The announcement that Sydney Markets will move from Flemington to the Aerotropolis in Western Sydney means the existing Flemington site could become a new type of development.
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Record housing completions in Sydney as approvals fall fast
The NSW Housing Monitor has listed record housing completions for metropolitan Sydney but housing approvals are falling fast.
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Are Europe's cities ready for autonomous mobility?
For the past century, cars have dominated cities, shaping the streets and changing how urban areas were designed. Autonomous mobility promises to reshape cities once more, freeing them from the many car-centric assumptions that previously dictated where citizens and organisations would be located.
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MTalks: How the digital revolution is affecting architecture and city planning
Architect and engineer Carlo Ratti and city design director professor Rob Adams will discuss the impact of the technological revolution on architecture, engineering and city planning at an MTalk today. The digital revolution is changing the way we live today as radically as the industrial revolution did almost two centuries ago. As urbanisation accelerates across the world, digital media and information technologies integrated with the built environment hold huge potential for understanding, designing, and managing future cities.
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Expats rate Melbourne over Sydney, but cost of living holds Australian cities back
Sydney is back in favour with expats - but Melbourne's still on top in Australia, according to a global survey that compares expats' experiences living abroad. The InterNations' Expat City Ranking placed Melbourne 16th worldwide, ahead of Sydney at 21st, and both Australian cities beat Auckland, which came in at 37th. This was a big drop for New Zealand's most populous city, which came in 14th in the 2017 ranking, whereas this year Sydney has leapt up over 20 places from 44th in 2017.
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Victorian election: Guy's plan to release pressure on capital
Matthew Guy would like every Victorian, before they vote in -tomorrow's election, to lie back and think of England. With new Australian Bureau of Statistics population forecasts showing that eight out of every 10 Victorians will be crammed into a bulging greater Melbourne by 2027, the Opposition -Leader -believes a long-term -solution can be adapted from -Britain, where successive governments since Margaret Thatcher's have pursued a policy of decentralisation.
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Cities may struggle to cope with 24 million extra Australians expected by 2066
Planning and infrastructure construction in major cities are lagging behind current needs, experts say, and has a long way to go to accommodate the anticipated 24 million extra Australians projected to call the country home by 2066. The Australian Bureau of Statistics today revealed Australia's population is expected to balloon to as much as 49,226,089 in the next 48 years, buoyed by a stream of international immigration and rising natural increase rate over time.
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2018 Australian Urban Design Awards announced
A new community and cultural precinct, a dynamic regional hospital and an inner-city design quality guide were among the winners of the 2018 Australian Urban Design Awards (AUDA). Presented at a ceremony in Sydney on Thursday 25 October, the Australian Urban Design Awards were established to recognize "contemporary Australian urban design projects of the highest quality and to encourage cities, towns and communities across the country to strive for best practice in all projects." Eleven entries were recognized across four categories, with five entries being named winners.
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Designing cities to counter loneliness? Let’s explore the possibilities
Do you feel lonely? If you do, you are not alone. While you may think it’s a personal mental health issue, the collective social impact is an epidemic. You may also underestimate the effects of loneliness. The health impact of chronic social isolation is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
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15 November 2018
Australia needs to triple its social housing by 2036. This is the best way to do it
Australia needs to triple its small stock of social housing over the next 20 years to cover both the existing backlog and newly emerging need. That is the central finding of our new research report on the housing infrastructure needs of low-income earners, published by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). By our reckoning, 25 years of inadequate investment has left Australia facing a shortfall of 433,000 social housing dwellings.
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How Australian cities are adapting to the Asian Century
China's rise as a global power is driving new flows of people, ideas and capital between China and Australia. Australian cities need to adapt to this new geopolitical reality. For some, these changes promise new opportunities to fulfil a "vision of being a land of increased opportunity, prosperity and fairness". Others see Asian "invasion" and "takeover" as a threat to Australia's white identity and political system.
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Resistance, site size hurdles for medium density uptake
Community resistance and a lack of sizeable development sites are major barriers to medium density development in Perth. Perth and Peel@3.5m promotes higher density residential developments around activity centres, station precincts and along high-frequency public transport routes, to create housing diversity and choice.
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Western Sydney Collaborates on Global City Initiative
Sixteen cities have become founding members of a new global network connecting academia and businesses to identify and combat common challenges that face urban environments. The City Possible initiative, kickstarted by Mastercard, intends to bring together global entities to develop innovative approaches to emerging problems within cities to create a better quality of life for their residents.
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Street smarts are crucial to planning our cities
The congestion on our streets from bikes, dockless bikes, scooters, e-scooters, e-bikes, EV-charging, and even people are making our kerb-side a battleground. We need to think smarter about how these increasing and competing channels can all access the veins of our city. Most roads are still designed for cars first.
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Sydney's growth is not being spread evenly across councils
A review of housing completions across metropolitan Sydney indicates that many councils are not carrying their fair share of growth.
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Pyrmont can become the next high rise peninsula as support for Sydney's CBD
With the Sydney CBD filling up fast with new development the Urban Taskforce believes that a long term plan is needed to continue Sydney as the leading global city in Australia by developing the Pyrmont Peninsula.
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Should adult cyclists be permitted on footpaths?
Riders aren't glorified pedestrians; cycling is a mode of transport that belongs on dedicated on-road and off-road paths. The growing popularity of power-assisted bicycles makes cycling on footpaths by adults a doubtful proposition
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Airbnb not significantly hurting rental affordability in Sydney and Melbourne, report reveals
Airbnb isn't making rental affordability "significantly" worse, but it is reducing the number of properties that are available for long-term renters in Sydney and Melbourne. According to a new report, released today, that applies especially to the "high-demand" suburbs with "significant tourism appeal". The report was from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), which describes itself is a not-for-profit organisation funded by several universities and governments (Federal, state and territory).
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All-hours shopping to reinvigorate Sydney nightlife economy
All-hours shopping and banking throughout central Sydney would be possible under trading hour changes being proposed by the City of Sydney. A review of planning controls could see the 24-hour trading zone being extended across the city centre from Darling Harbour to Hyde Park and Central Station.
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1 November 2018
Artificial intelligence set to speed up development approvals with semi-automated planning decisions: AHURI report
Slow development approvals and inconsistent planning decisions could soon be a thing of the past, with disruptive technologies set to streamline urban planning. Artificial intelligence could soon be sophisticated enough to semi-automate urban planning processes, better predicting the effects of a proposed development and fast-tracking approvals.
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Desire paths: the illicit trails that defy the urban planners
We’ve all been there. You want a short cut – to the bus stop, office or corner shop – but there’s no designated path. Others before you have already flattened the grass, or cut a line through a hedge. Why not, you think.
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Immigration and population levels in NSW to be assessed by 'expert panel'
Immigration has become a prominent issue for Ms Berejiklian, with the Premier raising it on multiple occasions as congestion, housing affordability and urban development look set to become hot topics ahead of next year's state election.
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Urban Planning Guru Says Driverless Cars Won’t Fix Congestion
Mr. Calthorpe is a Berkeley-based urban planner who is one of the creators of New Urbanism, which promotes mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods. His designs emphasize the proximity of housing, shopping and public space. He is not opposed to autonomous vehicles. Mr. Calthorpe’s quarrel is with the idea that the widespread adoption of personally owned self-driving cars will solve transportation problems. In fact, he worries it will lead to more urban congestion and suburban sprawl.
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Maintaining the golden age for some Sydney suburbs, density for others
Urban density has become controversial in Sydney. The broad consensus among state policymakers is that we must have urban growth and a denser city, but where? Density in a scientific sense is the measure of the volumetric mass of an object. But planners think of density as the mass of people or jobs over land, and the community seems to think the denser a place gets, the worse it becomes.
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A better way to do development and bring the community along
Deliberative development could go a long way to replacing the more typical adversarial approach, argues Panos Miltiadou, managing director of Lucent, the first developer to be licensed as a Nightingale housing provider with its Lt. Miller and Nightingale apartments in Brunswick East, Melbourne, currently under construction.
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Fishermans Bend developers face height restrictions under new planning rules
Under the new planning framework, development height will be restricted to mid-rise buildings in several precincts, and 20-storey developments will be required to be set back 10 metres from the street. Developers will also be allowed to build higher dwelling density projects "in exchange for the provision of a defined public benefit", under a strategy aimed at boosting the amount of social housing.
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Smart Cities Council A/NZ releases new development code
The Smart Cities Council and Green Building Council of Australia have released a new standard of practice designed to ensure smart cities are built in ways that are sustainable and deliver numerous benefits to citizens. The Code for Smart Communities is a new benchmark for urban development practices across urban regeneration precincts, greenfield communities and institutional campuses.
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Mum-and-dad plans languish while big developers surge ahead in WA Planning Commission
Nine private landowners collectively own 28 hectares of rural land on sand dunes at the back of Singleton and have spent 10 years and $250,000 in efforts to rezone the blocks urban in order to subdivide them. But while they have patiently waited, neighbouring developments on the same length of dunes have progressed to the earthworks stage, one of which was applied for after the initial Singleton application.
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LandCorp to create Perth micro-lot communities in huge land release
LandCorp wants to deliver Perth’s ‘missing middle’ – the name given to the type of homes that are neither low-density suburbia nor high-density towers. The industry hopes will deliver housing choice and affordability – prices of micro-lot homes are usually around 70-80 per cent of the median house price in an area – for first-home buyers, empty-nesters, downsizers and investors, without building out greenery or compromising Perth’s liveability.
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Northern Gateway City Consortium Unveil Masterplan for $22 Billion City
Boyuan, along with its consortium partners Scentre Group, Western Sydney University, Logos and world-renowned neurosurgeon Professor Charlie Teo will spearhead planning and construction of the new city. The site of the new city is the largest single owner land holdings in the new created Western Sydney Aerotropolis and, according to analysis carried out by Urbis, will inject $21.6 billion into the fast growing regional economy.
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Here’s how to design cities where people and nature can both flourish
Urban nature has a critical role to play in the future liveability of cities. An emerging body of research reveals that bringing nature back into our cities can deliver a truly impressive array of benefits, ranging from health and well-being to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Aside from benefits for people, cities are often hotspots for threatened species and are justifiable locations for serious investment in nature conservation for its own sake. Australian cities are home to, on average, three times as many threatened species per unit area as rural environments. Yet this also means urbanisation remains one of the most destructive processes for biodiversity.
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22 October 2018
Reimagining Sydney: this is what needs to be done to make a Central City CBD work
Today, I introduce a bold proposal to build a Central CBD for metropolitan Sydney, as a real complement to the City of Sydney CBD to the east. Central City 2048 is a 30-year strategic plan, which builds on the Greater Sydney Commission's Greater Sydney Region Plan. Central City 2048 presents a vision for a dynamic, connected and sustainable CBD at the heart of the Greater Sydney metropolitan region.
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Is it time to move beyond the limits of `built environment' thinking?
The constructed world around us provides the stage for our daily life. The term "built environment" is in the past tense, describing a scenario after the fact. What does it actually mean beyond the obvious connotation of buildings and parks? If we look closely at these two words they tell a hidden story. We have built, which is made, created and manufactured, and environment, which can be either human-made or natural. The term links the made world with our natural world. It describes the world we made so far. But the two are separated.
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Canadians increasingly live in the auto-dependent suburbs
Canada is a suburban nation. More than two-thirds of our country's total population now live in the suburbs, meaning policy-makers must deal with the multitude of issues regarding this suburban explosion. In all our largest metropolitan areas, the portion of suburban residents is higher than 80 per cent, including the Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal regions.
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Federation Square recommended for heritage listing, threatening Apple store plans
Melbourne's Federation Square has been recommended for heritage protection in a move that could make it more difficult for tech giant Apple to get a permit to build its new store alongside the Yarra River. The National Trust originally made the nomination because chief executive Simon Ambrose said the square needed to be protected for future generations for its historical, architectural, cultural and artistic significance.
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Melbourne train link promised between CBD and Sunshine under Labor's airport rail plan
A new rail tunnel is proposed to be built between Melbourne's CBD and Sunshine under a Labor Government plan to boost train services to the city's booming western suburbs and create fast links to Geelong and Ballarat. The tunnel and extra services would be integrated with the proposed airport rail link, with Sunshine station to become a "super hub".
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Melbourne to build mini-CBDs to cope with the population boom
When you drive or fly into Melbourne, catching sight of the city's skyline on the horizon is one of the first signs you're getting close. Towering over the low-lying suburbs, it sticks out like a beacon, calling people towards the economic heart of the city.
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Isn't long-term planning for urban public transport a no-brainer?
The Rail Futures Institute's Melbourne Rail Plan is the sort of comprehensive metropolitan plan that the Government's failed to release, preferring instead to pull out ad-hoc projects just before the next election. It's hard to pin down what's truly "visionary" from what's merely "a nice possibility", but Victoria's Rail Futures Institute's promised Melbourne Rail Plan 2019-2050 looks a lot more like a game-changer than the Victorian Government's headline election pledge to build a suburban orbital rail line through Melbourne's middle-ring suburbs.
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Cities are using new cloud technology to fight increasingly expensive and catastrophic flooding
Intense storms are becoming much more frequent, resulting in heavier rainfall and flooding that wreaks havoc on local infrastructures, budgets and economies. This summer was one of the wettest on record in much of the Northeast. Study after study have shown that storms with extreme rain are becoming more common, and consequently posing a new challenge to old, outdated stormwater systems in cities large and small. Most of the nation's stormwater systems are simply unable to handle the increasingly heavy rainfall. And it gets worse as urban development increases because there are fewer places for water to go.
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Chinese city 'plans to launch artificial moon to replace streetlights'
In Chengdu, there is reportedly an ambitious plan afoot for replacing the city's streetlights: boosting the glow of the real moon with that of a more powerful fake one. The south-western Chinese city plans to launch an illumination satellite in 2020. According to an account in the People's Daily, the artificial moon is "designed to complement the moon at night", though it would be eight times as bright.
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The Mexican town that refused to become a smart city
Lupita Tecual Porquillo had heard a rumour that the plaza was going to be "remodelled". The 51-year-old grocery store owner lives around the corner from the centre of Santa Maria Tonantzintla, a sleepy town in the state of Puebla, about three hours from Mexico City. She assumed "remodelling" meant repairing the plaza's centuries-old cobblestone pavement.
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How consumer technology is driving smart cities
In just a few short years, we've come to expect miraculous things from our phones. It's not enough to order a ride, anywhere, anytime. Consumers have become accustomed to seeing the car make its way toward them in real time. Consumer technology has advanced so rapidly that any systems lagging behind stand out glaringly. That disparity is one reason cities are under pressure to adopt smart city projects, which use sensors, connected devices, and data to improve municipal systems. So said a panel of smart city experts, on stage at the 2018 GeekWire Summit.
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2 October 2018
Our fast-growing cities and their people are proving to be remarkably adaptable
Outer-suburban dwellers in our large capital cities are the modern version of Menzies' "forgotten people", if the government is to be believed. The image of a low-income commuter forced to spend over an hour driving to the CBD is all too common, as the media reach for a way to make sense of population growth.
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The problem isn't dockless share bikes. It's the lack of bike parking
It's a local government truism that Australian city dwellers care about only three things - rates, rubbish and parking. They want lower rates, the freedom to turf out as much trash as they like, and convenient free car parking. The arrival of dockless share bikes set these attitudes towards parking and rubbish on a collision course.
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Why trackless trams are ready to replace light rail
I began my life as an activist academic in 1979 when the Western Australian government closed the Fremantle railway, saying buses would be better. Patronage immediately fell by 30% and I ran a four-year campaign to save the railway. We won. I have been writing books and running campaigns ever since on why trains and trams are better than buses. But I have changed my mind. The technology has changed, and I think it will end the need for new light rail.
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Lord Mayor Sally Capp gets aboard push for a big Australia
Booming populations are nothing for Australia's big cities to be afraid of, says the mayor of the nation's fasting-growing capital. Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp has called on the nation to embrace population growth and change the way new inner-city suburbs are created. She wants our big towns to look more like Sydney's latest development, Barangaroo, and less like her own city's troubled Docklands area.
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Australian cities need to "build up" and "move out"
A new report calls for the development of a national plan of settlement, providing a national vision for Australian cities and regions for the next fifty years. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities has released a report titled Building Up and Moving Out.
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Wishlist of goals for cities and nationwide planning
MP John Alexander flagged some ambitious goals for cities and nation-wide planning when he addressed The Fifth Estate's Tomorrowland 2018 just two weeks ago on 6 September and he was optimistic. Now we know why. The Building Up & Moving Out report released on Monday by the committee that he chaired has endorsed a great wish list of ideas for Canberra to embrace.
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Can simulations help Singapore better plan the future?
SECURITY forces in Singapore can soon learn how to best respond to a real attack on the city, through digital simulations on a 3D model. The "Virtual Singapore" project will soon be accessible to state agencies for urban planning and disaster mitigation in the city. The project will also be made available to the public later on.
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Iconic London phone boxes get high-tech upgrade, prompting surveillance fears
The British telephone box is not dead yet. In parts of central London, a box stands sentinel every 30 metres; and if phone companies got their way they'd plant one every 15 metres. But these are not the red cast-iron cubicles that for generations were emblems of Britain. Instead, critics say, they are eyesores, covered in digital ad screens and capable of being turned into surveillance posts.
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Tick a Box Planning makes Sydney Apartments Dull
At a recent forum on Innovative Apartments it became clear that the design of Sydney's apartments is being overly controlled by a tick a box planning system. "Over the last decade the government rules and guides for the design of apartment buildings has become more complex leading to a tick a box planning assessment process that is leading to less innovation and design diversity".
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NSW Government Architect role important for the state's urbanisation
The NSW Government must appoint a new Government Architect to replace Peter Poulet. "The recent move of the current NSW Government Architect, Peter Poulet, to a reduced role in the Greater Sydney Commission leaves a vacant leadership role for design in the NSW Government".
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14 September 2018
Urbanites can be divided into six different tribes, to help make cities fit for all
When analysed across the years, digital traces can help scientists and governments to understand at an unprecedented scale how societies in different parts of the world cope with major events, such as recessions or major policy changes.
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Can Density Prevent Diabetes?
A team of academics from several Australian universities have begun a two-and-a-half year study to determine the best strategies for designing high-density developments that promote physical and mental health—specifically type 2 diabetes, heart disease and depression.
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Why are peppercorn trees always planted at schools?
Have you ever wondered how the trees on your street were chosen? The answer is more complex than you might think.
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Developers accused of demolishing Corkman Irish Pub sentenced for dumping asbestos
Developers Raman Shaqiri and Stefce Kutlesovski were each fined $120,000 for failing to securely contain asbestos-riddled debris at the site of the demolished Corkman Irish Hotel in inner-city Carlton, and for then dumping it in Cairnlea, in Melbourne's north-west.
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Sky rail construction blamed by residents for damaging Melbourne homes
Two homeowners in Melbourne's south-east claim construction of the State Government's sky rail project has caused serious structural damage to their homes — a claim disputed by the authority in charge.
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North East Link road project design to feature twin tunnels, green bridges, new cycling paths
Bridges covered in greenery, 25 kilometres of cycling and walking paths and better noise standards will form part of the proposed $15.8 billion North East Link, plans unveiled by the Andrews Government have revealed.
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German Cities To Trial Ambitious Free Public Transport Plans
The university city of Tübingen, in southwest Germany, is testing free public transportation for all residents. Two weeks ago, the city began a two-year pilot project using its own funds to provide free rides on Saturdays.
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An Australian Place to Call Home
As Melbourne’s population hits 5 million, adding 1 million people in only a year, Victoria must use its land wisely to meet the growing need for affordable housing
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Making Cities Work for Every Urban Dweller
It’s the urban age for people – and for other species too – so it’s time to start planning for all the plants and animals that call our cities home
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Slowing Foot Traffic Costs Cities, Auckland Study Finds
Pedestrians are often seen as contributing to the cost of congestion by obstructing the flow of traffic. In fact, walking is the most important transport mode in Auckland city centre. But what if you could put a dollar value on the benefit of a walkable city? Until recently this has not been measured. A world-leading project has shown it can now measure the value of walking versus other forms of transport
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Designing greener streets starts with finding room for bicycles and trees
Today there is growing support for bicycling in many U.S. cities for both commuting and recreation. Research is also showing that urban trees provide many benefits, from absorbing air pollutants to cooling neighborhoods.
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6 September 2018
Has Daniel Andrews gone loopy on rail?
The Andrews government's planned $50 billion loop rail line around outer suburban Melbourne signals Victorian Labor has joined the other parties in giving up on rational urban policy
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Liverpool mixed-use city centre should be the model for all centres
The announcement by NSW Planning Minister, Anthony Roberts, that the Liverpool city centre has been rezoned for mixed-use is a good model for all centres across Sydney.
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Work Habits Are Changing: Cities Need to Keep Up
Changes in the world of work are well-documented. Smart technologies, AI, cloud computing, wireless mobility-you name it-all have a profound impact on how work is being performed. Recent research shows that remote work has been on a steady rise. Should cities care?
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Data Analytics in Urban Planning: New Tools for Old Problems
Asian societies are rapidly urbanizing. As populations, wealth and cities expand in the region, the need for urban planning is critical. Some cities in Asia are doing it better than others, and Singapore is one of them. BRINK Asia spoke with Huang Zhongwen, director of Digital Planning Lab at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), about the complexities and intricacies of urban planning and about how urban planners in Singapore are making the most of new tools such as geospatial and data analytics to address what are really age-old issues that cities have faced through the centuries.
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Look up Australia, cable cars could ease our traffic woes
Sections of cities all over the world are being demolished to meet increasing demand for transport infrastructure. The process of building new roads, harbour crossings, metro systems and light rail lines seems unending. Large-scale construction includes loss of public space, housing and backyards.
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Our new PM wants to `bust congestion' - here are four ways he could do that
Road congestion is costing Australia more than an avoidable A$16 billion every year. This is set to almost double to A$30 billion by 2030. That's why we have a new minister for cities and urban infrastructure, Alan Tudge, who says he's looking forward to "congestion busting".
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