Article: No end to urban sprawl as transport woes set to grow

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From the  Age click here!

No end to urban sprawl as transport woes set to grow

No end to urban sprawl as transport woes set to grow

    * Jason Dowling
    * May 9, 2009

MELBOURNE'S urban sprawl will push another 50,000 houses into surrounding farmland in the next 15 years, putting further pressure on Melbourne's stretched transport system.

Despite Government planning policies backing increased city density, almost half of all new housing expected in Melbourne over the next decade will be built on Melbourne's fringes where there is little access to public transport.

A report by the Government's urban development program estimated that "an average of around 13,300 lots are required annually to meet projected dwelling demand across the growth areas over the next 15 years".

The report found current land zoned for housing was not adequate for the expected demand. "The 2008 urban development program has identified that there is approximately 10-11 years' total supply of broadhectare land (set aside) across metropolitan Melbourne growth areas, which constitutes a current shortfall of residential land for future requirements," the report said.

Government policy is to have 15 years of land available for housing.

The report indicated that at least 50,000 houses would be built outside Melbourne's current boundary in the next 15 years.

Greens MP Colleen Hartland said: "There is already a huge strain; the Government is simply not putting money into public transport, they are letting those outer growth suburbs be built without any public transport."

Premier John Brumby announced in December that the Government was working on expanding the urban growth boundary. It was examining up to 50,000 hectares for urban expansion. An announcement on the size of Melbourne's growth is expected in the middle of the year.

Details of Melbourne's latest urban bulge come a week after Planning Minister Justin Madden took over planning control for five major urban developments, including a 214-apartment development on River Road, South Yarra.

One of the criteria used by the minister to justify the intervention appeared at odds with the Government's urban boundary expansion. In taking over planning for the development, Mr Madden concluded "the proposal is supported by the principles of Melbourne 2030, which encourages a greater proportion of new dwellings at strategic development sites (particularly in and around principal activity centres) within established metropolitan urban areas, to reduce pressure for urban expansion".

The latest growth plans for Melbourne come not long after a parliamentary report found that one in 100 residents in some of Melbourne's outer suburbs used only public transport to get to work.

Releasing the new urban growth report yesterday, Mr Madden said "a number of `investigation areas' have been identified across Melbourne's five growth areas to accommodate an additional 284,000 dwellings over the next 20 years".