Article: Mayor Campbell Newman backs more highrises for Brisbane

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Mayor Campbell Newman backs more high rises for Brisbane

Mayor Campbell Newman backs more hig hrises for Brisbane
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Bruce McMahon

April 29, 2009 12:00am

BRISBANE needs to grow up. While regional plans consider population growth in concentrated urban settings, Campbell Newman says it's time Brisbane had more highrises.

This would bring transport and infrastructure savings plus create a more powerful, more creative metropolis, the Lord Mayor  says.

And Cr Newman believes politicians, state and local, need to educate Queenslanders that saving green space in the southeast corner has major implications.

"We have to go up if we can't go out. We have to densify the existing urban footprint," Cr Newman says.

He believes the draft SEQ Regional Plan, open to public comment until Friday, is very important for the long-term sustainability and direction of our cities.

"But we have to work with our communities and explain what's happening," Cr Newman says.

"We need a fair dinkum campaign of engagement. Nobody at the grassroots level understands what the plan's about and what we're trying to achieve."

Areas for creating "vertical space" in Brisbane would include the CBD and transport corridors such as Lutwyche and Indooroopilly.

Cr Newman believes a "constrained city" can be far more powerful.

"Low-density cities lead to social dislocation. Compact urban forms will lead to great economic and cultural outcomes in the city of Brisbane," he says.

"With uncontrolled sprawls you get the doughnut effect. Some American cities have spread dramatically and the inner cores have not been vibrant types of places."

And the cost of infrastructure for fringe developments is more than double, transport costs higher and carbon emissions greater.

But Cr Newman says that with housing affordability an issue under these plans, vertical space has to be created for developers and residents.

"The biggest thing we can do about that affordability problem is to create land supply upstairs," he says.

"We (BCC) are trying to evolve, trying to get the people to come along with us on this common journey.

"And there are examples around us, things that would never have happened a few years ago ? at Buranda, Stones Corner, Albion, Bowen Hills. Even down at Wynnum there are changes that wouldn't have been contemplated a few years ago."

Cr Newman says concentrating cities also offers opportunities for renewal and rectifying past mistakes. He praises urban renewal work initiated by the previous lord mayor Jim Soorley and planner Trevor Raddacliff, in particular around New Farm and Teneriffe.

The draft SEQ Regional Plan projects the southeast corner will have a population of 4.4 million people by 2031.

A "significant" proportion of future residential growth would be accommodated through infill and redevelopment of existing urban areas.

[stephenk]

I'm glad someone has seen the light. Brisbane is already unsustainably too big. It's time to build up not out.

[Jon Bryant]

The Lord Mayor is right but this press release does not match his road first approach to transport.  He can not have it both ways.  How can we have a compact city when most of the inner city suburbs have been destroyed due to freeways or tunnels?  Bowen Hills, South Brisbane, Herston, Paddington.  Part of the doughnut effect was caused by the destruction of inner city suburbs by freeway construction not just urban sprawl.

What needs to be introduced is the concept of carring capacity based on the regions current approaches/investment.  Thus the only way to increase the carrying capacity of a region is to develop cities that use less energy, move people more efficiently, minimise distruction of native vegitation (or maybe even imorove it), etc. 

All our cities should be using tools such as MetroQuest  http://deverregion.mtroquest.com to identify and educate on the impacts of the different choices we can make in the development of our cities.  Another way this tool could be used is to calculate the carrying capacity of a region and allow peole to see that poor choices limits the future of the region.  Some may see this as a benefit though?