Challenge Melbourne ISSUES IN METROPOLITAN PLANNING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

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1 Challenge Melbourne ISSUES IN METROPOLITAN PLANNING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

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3 MINISTERS FOREWORD The planning of Melbourne s future presents many challenges and opportunities. We could let matters take their own course or, as a community, decide what shape our future should take and start working towards it now. The Metropolitan Strategy offers one way for us to take charge of our future. The strategy will provide a framework for both State and local government to make decisions to improve the region as a place in which to live, work and visit. Businesses and the community will also be able to use the strategy to guide their own decisions. The strategy will support the four pillars of government: delivering better services, restoring democracy, developing the whole State and responsible financial management. It will address how strategic land use and transport planning can best support the Bracks Government s social, environmental and economic policy agendas. The principles of ecologically sustainable development will underpin the strategy. The Government recognises that strategic land use and transport planning needs to be more inclusive of community development, economic development, infrastructure coordination, service delivery, social justice and environmental resource management. Improving people s everyday experience of Melbourne is becoming increasingly important for residents and visitors. Cultural diversity, tolerant and open attitudes and safe, attractive environments all help people feel they can fully participate in urban life. The Government is committed to improving the liveability, prosperity and sustainability of Melbourne and all Victoria. The future of Melbourne and regional Victoria are fundamentally linked. All Victorians have a stake in the development of Melbourne. All Victorians should enjoy the benefits and meet the challenges of building a prosperous, just and inclusive society. As the Metropolitan Strategy will impact on us all it is essential that the community helps to shape it and its actions. This paper is one of the many opportunities for community involvement in the process of preparing a Metropolitan Strategy for Melbourne. John Thwaites MP Minister for Planning Peter Batchelor MP Minister for Transport Challenge Melbourne 3

4 CONTENTS Ministers foreword 3 Introduction 5 Melbourne s place in the world 7 Melbourne part of a wider economy 7 Melbourne part of a wider community 10 Melbourne part of a wider environment 10 Towards a more sustainable Melbourne 11 The Metropolitan Strategy s role in 11 Melbourne s future Starting point 11 An evaluation framework 13 Melbourne tomorrow - todays challenges 14 Melbourne s people 14 Changing needs 14 Social disadvantage for some 14 Melbourne s settlement 15 Housing 15 Affordable housing 15 Buying less, renting more 16 Living in familiar places 17 New housing in established areas 17 Growth on the fringe 18 Links between Melbourne and 18 regional Victoria Melbourne at work 20 Employment 20 Centres of activity 21 Melbourne at play 22 Leisure 22 A rich cultural life 22 The public realm 23 Respecting our environment 24 Fauna, flora and national parks 24 Health of the waterways and bays 25 Air quality 25 Greenhouse effect 25 Waste 26 Pressure on non-urban areas 26 Travel 27 Travel patterns 27 Walking and cycling 27 Increased use of public transport 28 Freight traffic and the economy 28 Managing urban infrastructure 29 The importance of infrastructure 29 Transport infrastructure 29 Technology and the city 31 Water 31 Sewerage 32 Drainage 32 Industrial land 32 Melbourne s airports 33 Melbourne s ports 33 Reservation and protection of land 34 Responsible investments in infrastructure 35 Your say 36 Feedback 36 Community forums 36 Further information 36 Figures 1. Melbourne s place in the world 7 2. Urban population by region, , 2000, Integration of sustainability elements Projected households and average household 15 size, metropolitan Melbourne, Example House price changes by selected suburb, Major net migration moves, Melbourne Statistical 16 Local Areas, Residential building activity, metropolitan Melbourne, Land supply within growth corridors, Growth corridor residential land stocks, Commuter belt around Melbourne, Interregional work trips, Key job generating sectors, metropolitan 20 Melbourne, Percentage of labour force working and living 20 in same region, Regional park network, Environmental constraints Australia s greenhouse gas emissions, Location of green wedges Trip chaining examples Time and distance spent travelling, Type of travel, Type of travel and distance, Public transport coverage, metropolitan 29 Melbourne, weekdays and weekends 23. Current transport network Industrial land availability, Passenger movements, Melbourne Airport, All Victorian ports, total trade forecasts,

5 INTRODUCTION Our quality of life tomorrow will be determined by decisions made today. It will be influenced by social trends already visible the globalisation of business, the fragility of the environment, and the rate of technological change are some of the important issues that will affect the future of Melbourne. In dealing with them, the Government needs to understand the community s expectations. It must also ensure that all Victorians have a chance to express their opinions and participate in devising plans for the future. Where do we start? What do we value from what we have? What do we want to change? We face many challenges in building on today s assets to create a sustainable community for the twenty-first century. What is the Metropolitan Strategy? The strategy is one of a number of initiatives of the Bracks Government that will shape the future direction of Melbourne and Victoria. It will concentrate on the ways in which land use management and transport development can best support the economic, social and environmental needs of Melbourne. Its main focus will be metropolitan Melbourne and its immediate surrounds. However, the development of Melbourne and the whole of Victoria are fundamentally linked, so the relationship between the two will be an important consideration in the strategy. The links are particularly strong with Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Latrobe Valley. Cities are complex entities and it is impossible to consider any one of their elements in isolation. For example, our decisions about where we live, the transport we use, our access to work, friends and services and the environmental impacts of our lifestyle choices are all related. This paper outlines trends and identifies some of the issues that could have a significant impact on Melbourne s development. The Government would like your views on these and any other issues you see as important to the city s future.

6 A snapshot of Melbourne s planning history As early as 1922 the Victorian Government recognised the need for planning. It established the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission, which released a report in 1929 highlighting issues around traffic congestion, the distribution of recreational open space and the haphazard intermingling of land uses. It proposed a planning scheme to prevent the misuse of land and to protect property values. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression meant that the recommendations of this groundbreaking report were not implemented. Nearly a quarter of a century passed before the first of a series of reports laid the foundation for the physical shape of today s Melbourne. In 1954, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) adopted the first comprehensive planning scheme for the metropolitan area. It introduced the concept of District Business Centres that has carried through into policies today. The policy focused major retail activity on designated centres that were intended to support, and be supported by, public transport systems. The centres were to provide central locations for housing, transport, employment and community activity. District Centre policy was reinforced in the Metropolitan Strategy released by the MMBW in July 1980, whereby housing, transport, employment and community facilities were concentrated at points of high accessibility in existing areas. In 1983, new District Centre Zones encouraged office development in 14 centres and restricted office development outside these areas. The last formal document to deal with metropolitan development was Living Suburbs, released in It represented a different policy direction in that it had little direct impact on land use and transport planning. The earlier approach s policy of concentrating suburban retail and office development according to a strict hierarchy of activity centres was displaced in favour of generalised policies highlighting the desirability of concentration of development. Controls over green wedge boundaries were loosened to allow changes at the local level on a case-by-case basis. The coordinated development of major areas was left to local councils. So, for most of the 1990s, government policy was to relax metropolitanwide planning direction and controls in favour of decision-making at the local level. In 1971, another MMBW report, Planning Policies for the Melbourne Metropolitan Region, set out long-term conservation and development policies which formally introduced the growth corridor and green wedge principles that still prevail in growth areas today. This plan contained outward growth to a limited number of areas on the edge of the city, resulting in a relatively wellplanned city when compared to many others. The thrust of the 1971 report was reinforced in the 1987 metropolitan strategy, Shaping Melbourne s Future.

7 Melbourne s place in the world The way that Melbourne interacts with regional Victoria, the rest of Australia and the wider world, influences how our city develops. In recent years, Australia has reached a new level of international interdependence through telecommunications, the growth of international trade and finance, and the development of larger transnational organisations. So, any change at the global level has implications for Melbourne, Victoria and Australia. The interplay of local, regional, national and global forces of change determines how Melbourne can respond. The twentieth century was a period of population growth, urbanisation and increasing awareness of the penalties of environmental degradation. Its legacy is that the world s population is expected to increase from six billion in 2000 to about eight billion by Of critical interest to Australia is the fact that the population of Asian cities will almost double in the next 30 years, from about 1.4 billion today, to more than 2.7 billion in The estimated population of Asia s cities will then be twice the combined population of all the cities of the developed world. Melbourne part of a wider economy The sheer size of the emerging national markets in the cities of Asia suggests they will be key locations for new finance and service industries and potential sites for innovation eager markets for products and services. As a result, the focus of Melbourne s economic opportunities will lie more in Asia. However, more competition will come from countries in the region with cities of a similar size. China, India, Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, closer neighbours such as Singapore, all have potential competitor cities. In addition, about 30 cities in Asia are expected to have populations above five million in the next 25 years, bringing to more than 50 the number with populations of between five and 10 million. These Asian cities are closer to regional markets, generally have a larger domestic economy to support business activity, and are better known in the region. The challenge they pose to our future prosperity is substantial. Globalisation impacts So far, globalisation processes have had the following impacts: competition between nations and cities for investment and activity is growing due to the increased international mobility of capital, business investment and highlyskilled workers a major source of economic advantage lies in people s skills and knowledge, making the attraction and retention of skilled people extremely important growth industries, such as multimedia and entertainment, require environments in which creative people can communicate easily transnational corporations continue to merge, centralising key functions in a few major cities the increased power and influence of transnational corporations promotes partnership between business and city/regional governments the development of vast company conglomerates that control all aspects of industries such as entertainment and media. Million people 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1, Europe North America Latin America Africa Figure 1. Melbourne s place in the world Figure 2. Urban population by region, 1970, 2000, 2030 Source: Department of Infrastructure, 2000 Asia Source: UN, World Urbanisation Prospects - The 1996 Revolution Australia and New Zealand Challenge Melbourne 7

8 The relationship between Melbourne and regional Victoria has changed as a result of globalisation. Melbourne s markets for goods and services have traditionally been in regional Victoria and the rest of Australia. Now, Melbourne s markets are increasingly overseas, and Melbourne plays a crucial role in sustaining and expanding economic opportunities in export markets for regional and rural areas. Melbourne contributes in the following ways: the metropolitan transport network, the airports and ports provide essential linkages in the shipping and distribution networks, connecting producers in regional Victoria with markets overseas the metropolitan area provides a skill base and specialised firms offer advanced business services that add value to rural industry and help maintain its competitiveness the metropolitan job market has generated a demand for highly skilled and mobile knowledge workers who use the opportunities of flexible working arrangements, high-quality data transfer and telecommunications services to locate in regional areas around Melbourne, thus generating business in support of local communities; Melbourne, as the centrally located capital city of a compact State, provides access to unique high-quality cultural, sporting and recreational facilities. Towards a smart economy The changes in the relationship between Melbourne and regional Victoria reflect the fact that we are becoming a smart economy where companies consciously develop and apply knowledge as a basis for innovation and expansion. Such businesses are not exclusive to a particular sector of the economy but are usually strongly associated with manufacturing, business services, education, finance and communications. It is in these export-oriented sectors that Victoria is highly represented in terms of its share of national output. Trade in manufactured goods and growth in services, including tourism, have been the main impetus behind Victoria s economic performance over the past 15 years. Now the State s major export sectors are more likely to be in the areas of sophisticated products with a high value-added component. Each year, Victoria exports manufactured goods worth $5.8 billion, 50 per cent of which are products with high knowledge content, such as cars, car parts, aerospace components, etc. Of the $4 billion of agricultural exports, a high percentage, including wine and cheese, are also high value-added. The services sector, which includes tourism, now accounts for more than 20 per cent of State export income: tourism generates more than $1 billion in export sales and education generates more than $0.5 billion.

9 Despite being increasingly exposed to world markets during the past 15 years, Australia still ranks low on the list of western industrialised countries in terms of trade. For example, the contribution that export trade in merchandise makes to Victoria s Gross State Product was about 12 per cent in , compared to about 8.5 per cent in The average for Australia was 15.2 per cent not a high percentage compared to most other western industrialised countries. These statistics suggest that economic adjustments are still necessary. We need to consider what new policies affecting land use and infrastructure investment are needed to support enhanced export performance. We must also remember that the ability to attract investment to existing firms or to establish new firms in Victoria is affected by the suitability of the metropolitan region as a place to live, work and compete in the global economy. Attracting investment Since the early 1980s, foreign investment has outstripped domestic investment as a source of capital for business. Companies and governments must compete against other regions of the world for investment capital so we must understand the criteria that foreign investors apply when placing their money and the implications for our own development priorities. The smart economy provides high-quality and well-located public and private infrastructure. Some of the important elements include: forces, business support services, education and training facilities, and research and development facilities a choice of high-quality housing and living environments efficient and comprehensive communications networks linking firms to suppliers, markets, and market information high-quality accommodation for travellers high-quality exhibition and conference spaces. Most knowledge intensive firms also value: compact, well-designed central locations that stimulate face-to-face communications and information exchange easily accessible dispersed locations for back-office functions, such as data processing a choice of high-quality locations for facilities that give access to local markets. The global competitiveness of a city is influenced by how liveable those working in the knowledge-intensive areas of business find it. To keep and attract this highly mobile workforce, a city needs to offer a wide diversity of positive experiences. As well as good infrastructure and services, a vibrant street life, lively music scene, broad range of outdoor activities and strong universities are just some of the critical elements that make for a liveable city. A metropolitan strategy needs to take note of all these elements in order to support continued economic prosperity. efficient and easily accessible ports and airports for the import and export of goods and services, and for tourism efficient transport networks for freight movement, and access to skilled labour Challenge Melbourne 9