Report puts city planning in spotlight

17 June 2010

A KPMG report released Monday has urged the Federal Government to do more for urban planning policy, with cities considered the drivers of future productivity.

As reported in The Australian, the report, titled Spotlight on Australia's Capital Cities was commissioned by a coalition including the Property Council of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects and the Planning Institute of Australia. It shows Melbourne (pictured) as the nation's leading capital city in planning for population growth, while Sydney ranks ahead of only Darwin and Hobart, neither of which has a full city plan.

Using criteria adopted last year by the Council of Australian Governments for effective planning, the report looked at land-release policies, urban design, integration of nationally significant infrastructure, the clarity of future planning measures and policies to encourage investment. It ranked Melbourne as having the strongest representation of a capital strategic planning system supported by a metropolitan plan, a transport plan, land supply program and the recently released Integrated Housing Strategy. The key challenge for Melbourne was how it would continue to implement its plans in the face of strong population and economic growth, the report stated.

Sydney ranked comparatively poorly thanks to "poor implementation" of programs, including specific reference to recent changes to major transport infrastructure projects the North West Rail link, CBD Metro and West Metro.

"These changes indicate a lack of predictability and certainty in the way the Sydney strategic planning system operates and tends to suggest a breakdown in the way the system delivers strategic priorities."

The report comes as cities' approach to catering for substantially bigger populations has emerged a key political issue, following Treasury's third Intergenerational Report, which projected Australia's population would rise to 36 million by 2050, with most of the increase occurring in major cities.

 

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