By 2031, it is estimated another 556,000 people will be living in the Perth and Peel regions. Population growth brings with it myriad challenges, not the least of which is how to accommodate the extra bodies and cater for their needs.
Planning WA recently released Directions 2031, a new strategy for land use planning, for public comment.
It takes up where the previous government’s Network City left off. A pivotal moment in planning, the 2004 policy produced a range of aspirational ideas for the city’s future. Directions 2031 moves into the area of more measurable goals, although it falls short on detail.
Perth is rapidly heading down the path of endless sprawl, but Directions outlines the need to curb this in favour of a connected city with much better public transport. It proposes increasing the average density per hectare in greenfields from 10 dwellings to 15. Critically, it proposes that 47 percent of this urban growth be infill development – more than 120,000 new dwellings in the inner and middle suburbs.
This is not unrealistic but it will require fundamental changes in the way we think, live and plan for the future.
Perth is not prepared to embrace density; quite the opposite in some inner suburbs where it is vehemently opposed. It won’t be easy to convince a population used to the quarter acre block model to downsize.
The building and development industry will also have to adapt – look at smaller blocks, more town houses, better use of public open space.
So, too, utilities and other key infrastructure. Will, for example, the water authority be able to cope with extra demand in the infill, assuming there is even room for such developments?
There are ways to steer development in a certain direction, with the strategy proposing limits on land supply in certain areas and changing density zoning in others.
But Directions 2031 leaves a lot to the market at a time when the market is not really ready for change. This is a step in the right direction but does it go far enough? We need more detail about how the government proposes to fulfill its aims and reach its targets. If it wants Perth to head in a different direction, it is going to require more than a little political will.
I agree with you Kaitlyn. The sentiment is all very well, but it neither goes far enough to cope with the expected population growth, much less representing any credible response to the challenges of various global issues such as rising fuel costs, water and so on. It is a variation of ‘business as usual’ as far as I can tell.
Important inputs such as an economic strategy and public transport strategy are missing in action. Much more serious commitment is required.