Article: City's master plan under review

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

City's master plan under review

City's master plan under review

Date August 2, 2012 - 6:06PM Katherine Feeney

The future of Brisbane's newest green bridge, fresh CBD pedestrian plazas and Howard Smith Wharf hangs in the balance after Lord Mayor Graham Quirk today announced the City Centre Master Plan would be reviewed to deal with the pressures of a booming city.

City Hall has allowed just over a year for the new draft of the 2006 document to be completed, sealing the fate on many major developments slated for the city under former lord mayor Campbell Newman.

Controversial proposals such as North Bank, Cross River Rail and King George Square's underground bus stop and surface refurbishment were major components of the original plan, as well as the popular Vibrant Laneways small spaces strategy.

A new bridge for buses and mass transit from Adelaide Street to the Cultural Centre was also included in the original document, a plan Cr Quirk put forward for a $1.48 million feasibility study late last year.
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But Brisbane Development Association president Matthew Miller said there were still financial questions that needed answers.

"Finding $60-to-$80 million for a new bridge in Brisbane would be tough at the moment, but Airport Link seems to be doing well so hopefully that will encourage the private sector," Mr Miller said.

"We'd be supportive of proposals that focus on improving economic opportunity in the CBD – there are a range of little tweaks we'd like to see made to the plan to allow for that."

Chief on the developers' wish-list were adjustments to see greater capacity built into the city by way of larger floor-plates, more public transport and urban redesign to cater for extra pedestrians, the likes of which have already been seen at Edward and Queen streets.

"We're also interested to see how council will manage South Bank," Mr Miller said.

"We'd probably like to see the board maintained, but integrated into council – they do great work and it's an important part of the city."

Earlier this year, South Bank was returned to council control after Mr Newman, as premier, confirmed an end to the state's powerful South Bank Corporation, allocating a $279 million lump sum to help cover cost.

Cr Quirk said community consultation was an integral part of the review with industry consultation set to begin in October, followed by engagement with businesses and the residential community in 2013.

He said guide development and growth opportunities in the Brisbane city centre over the next two decades.

As the fastest-growing mature city in the world, he said Brisbane needed a clear direction to realise its full potential.

"The economic opportunities awaiting our city are forecast to generate 343,000 new jobs in Brisbane over the next 10 years and our population is expected to grow to 1.27 million people over the next 20 years," Cr Quirk said.

"Quite clearly we need to plan for this growth responsibly in a way that addresses the shortage of office, retail and residential space required by an expanding CBD.

"We want to secure our city's future as a place where businesses want to locate, workers want to work, people want to live, students want to study and tourists want to visit."

Timeline for the City Centre Master Plan review

    upcoming industry forums with Property Council of Australia, Brisbane Development Association, Urban Design Alliance (late 2012)
    community design and ideas forum (early 2013)
    draft city centre master plan (late 2013)
    statutory review of the City Centre Neighbourhood Plan (2014)

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/citys-master-plan-under-review-20120802-23i0b.html

[Jonno]

Airport Link is doing so well??? 50% of daily targets when it is free!!!!  What other planet or alternative dimension do these people live in?

[#Metro]

Fortitude Valley and Spring Hill need to undergo a MAJOR re-development because there are so many old, derelict and horrible buildings still there!

[Mr X]

Airport Link is doing so well??? 50% of daily targets when it is free!!!!  What other planet or alternative dimension do these people live in?

For Airport Link to meet the minimum targets to be a financial success it will need to be congested pretty much all the time, every day. Economic feasibility fail 101. Unfortunately both the operators of it and Clem7 are in lala land with their predictions and will find themselves in dire straits quite quickly.

[somebody]

I thought it was 1500/lane/hr

[nathandavid88]

Fortitude Valley and Spring Hill need to undergo a MAJOR re-development because there are so many old, derelict and horrible buildings still there!

You do realise that a lot of those old buildings are heritage listed or exist in demolition control precincts, right? While I can't speak for Spring Hill, in Fortitude Valley it's largely these older buildings that give the area it's individuality. No way should they be demolished! Freshened up and renovated sure (Waltons Building for example) but definitely not demolished and redeveloped!

As for Airport Link, I'm with rtt_rules. It is actually a tunnel that makes sense from an infrastructure point of view (much more than the Clem7), however, the  traffic targets that were set for the tunnel were just ludicrous, which is why they are only getting half of that. Demand to get to the Airport obviously just isn't as strong as they believed. That said though, I do think that, unlike the Clem7, when the tolls are introduced, we will still see reasonable numbers still using it. Way below their target but fair, realistic numbers.

The biggest issue with the tunnels in my admittedly simplistic view is that we are making people pay to avoid congested inner city roads, the complete opposite to what we should be doing! We should really make the tunnels/ICB toll free and impose a congestion tax on inner city roads. Stop people from driving through the middle of town if there is a tunnel alternative, and encourage people commuting into town to avoid the congestion tax by using PT.

[SurfRail]

^ The financial modelling for that would probably be more viable too.

[techblitz]

The biggest issue with the tunnels in my admittedly simplistic view is that we are making people pay to avoid congested inner city roads, the complete opposite to what we should be doing! We should really make the tunnels/ICB toll free and impose a congestion tax on inner city roads. Stop people from driving through the middle of town if there is a tunnel alternative, and encourage people commuting into town to avoid the congestion tax by using PT.

campbell newman needs to go the whole 9 yards (referring to his public service sackings) and implement this congestion tax. Give it 3 months after the A.L toll expires,once the figures are released and he sees another white elephant,hopefully this will push him to negotiate a congestion tax and come to an arrangement with brisconnections etc.A good model would be to create a balanceable figure with a small congestion tax and a decrease in the tolls (this way the govia toll system can stay in place)
Unfortunately just wiping tolls and making it free would have an adverse affect on congestion in the tunnels.

Its quite clear that commuters are thinking with thier wallets and opting to sit in congested traffic rather than pay an unwanted toll so the question is what is the government going to do about it.......