Article: Plan to lift tired spots

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Plan to lift tired spots

Plan to lift tired spots
JASON DOWLING
March 1, 2010

A NEW ''future city design'' for inner Melbourne highlights Flemington Racecourse, land near North Melbourne railway station and the space above rail tracks running east of Federation Square to Richmond station as key residential development zones.

The draft map is part of Melbourne City Council's plans for a development of the city that would rejuvenate old industrial and commercial sites, including areas of Southbank, Docklands, Carlton and the manufacturing zone along the Upfield train line from North Melbourne Station to Flemington Bridge.

Flemington race course would remain under the proposal, but the car-parking areas at the rear of the track could become the site of a new ''mini-suburb'', lord mayor Robert Doyle said.

''I think that has huge potential to be a new residential development,'' he said. ''If you think that we have actually got a rail line, a spur that runs from the city out to Flemington racecourse and the Showgrounds, it would be a relatively simple matter in the future to drop that under the ground and to roof over it and to use that whole precinct as a residential and retail development, that would almost create a mini-suburb.

''If you think about some of the upper car parks they have, up above the course, it is beautiful real estate, it looks one way down towards the Maribyrnong and the other way back towards the city - it's fairly prime residential real estate close to the city.''

The proposed development map is part of the Melbourne City Council's new municipal strategic statement that will be sent to Planning Minister Justin Madden for approval and made available for public feedback.

Cr Doyle said the plan would outline development in the city centre for next 10 to 15 years.

''Where is there potential for considerable development, where is development already occurring which will continue and where are the stable areas where relatively little change will occur?'' Cr Doyle said.

The central business district's residential population has boomed to 17,000. There now are almost 90,000 residents within the Melbourne City Council boundary.

Cr Doyle said the rail tracks east from Federation Square to Richmond were also ripe for development. ''That's looking forward 25-30 years. I think eventually that will link the city more completely to the sporting precincts and the MCG.''

With a booming population and stretched services, Cr Doyle said Melbourne had to use better what it had. ''If Melbourne is going to double in size between now and 2050, are we really going to double the amount of infrastructure we have?

''Of course we're not. We're going to have to use what we have better and that's the key to sustainable growth in Melbourne. Using what we have better, not just trying to replicate all of the infrastructure we have got at the edges of the city, that won't work. We have got to make better use of the infrastructure we have got, like rail lines, like community assets, rather than just more sprawl at the edges of the city.''

The key development areas would be mostly for residential development. ''People's lifestyle choice are changing,'' Cr Doyle said. ''A lot more people want to live very close to the city and close to work and this is one of the great employment spines of Melbourne.''

The development plan is expected to be released for public comment in April.