New Report Ranks Australia's Cities

[ozbob]

Media Release: BEMP - Built Environment Meets Parliament
Monday, June 14, 2010
AAP

Media release distributed by AAP Medianet.

* EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION, BROADCAST OR ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION

UNTIL 5.00 AM, MONDAY, 14 JUNE 2010 ***

New Report Ranks Australia's Cities

Property industry leaders have released a new report on the performance of Australia's capital cities and urged the Rudd Government to make cities a nation-building priority.

An alliance of leading business organisations Built Environment Meets Parliament (BEMP) will meet with political leaders and policy makers at a summit in Parliament House this week.

BEMP is an alliance of leading property industry groups that includes Consult Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects, the Green Building Council of Australia, the Planning Institute of Australia and the Property Council of Australia.

The call for action was prompted by an independent audit of Australia's capital city planning systems by KPMG for the BEMP alliance Spotlight on Australia's Capital Cities: An Independent Audit of City Planning Systems.

The report measured each capital city against the performance criteria for effective city planning adopted by COAG on 7 December 2009 and provided an overall score and ranking (Table 1).

The report also measured these planning frameworks against actual performance in the following areas: budget performance, population planning, housing affordability for key workers and traffic congestion, also providing an overall score against the criteria (out of 100) and ranking (Table 2).

1: Relative Capital City Performance

Rank Capital City Score

1 Melbourne 69

2 Brisbane 64

3 Adelaide 61

4 Perth 56

5 Canberra 54

6 Sydney 47

7 Darwin 44

8 Hobart 38

2: Performance Against External Indicators

Rank Capital City Score

1 Adelaide 73

2 Canberra 68

3 Hobart 58

4 Brisbane 55

5 Darwin 53

6 Melbourne 48

7 Perth 45

8 Sydney 40

The report makes several recommendations, supported in-principle by the BEMP alliance, such as:

* an expanded role for the Federal Government in urban policy:

* releasing a national urban policy with performance targets,

* launching a refreshed Better Cities program to target infrastructure

investment,

* appointing a Cabinet Minister for Urban Affairs,

* establishing a centre for design excellence.

* establishing metropolitan authorities in capital cities to improve decision-

making and delivery;

* streamlining planning by adopting the Development Assessment Forum (DAF) model

for local development assessment processes;

* ensuring that metro strategies take precedence over other planning laws and

have clear targets:

* adopting priority activity plans for land release and infrastructure

priorities;

* adopting innovative and modern public funding mechanisms such as bonds and

reforming developer contributions; and,

* setting city based performance targets and national reporting on progress

against these targets.

Peter Verwer, CEO of the Property Council of Australia, says: "Delivering long-term plans to manage future growth is essential if Australia is to have more liveable, sustainable and productive cities. There can be no nation-building agenda without lifting the performance of our cities."

Steve Johnston, CEO of the Planning Institute of Australia, says: "The KPMG report recognised the need to modernise and streamline our planning systems if we are to deliver better economic, social and environmental outcomes for our cities."

Romilly Madew, Chief Executive of the Green Building Council of Australia, says, "If we are to truly have sustainable cities in the future, then dealing with climate change and energy efficiency in existing and future buildings must continue to be a focus of future capital city planning."

David Parken, CEO of the Australian Institute of Architects, says: "We need to ensure that our capital cities are favourably positioned to lead the world in design excellence and sustainability."

Megan Motto, CEO of Consult Australia, says: "If we can better align federal, state and local government land use plans with their corresponding infrastructure plans, then we will achieve a joined-up approach to policy in the future."

The full KPMG report and a summary is available at: http://www.bemp.com.au

The report will be a key focus of the Built Environment Meets Parliament (BEMP) summit:

Date: Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Venue: Parliament House, Canberra

SOURCE: BEMP - Built Environment Meets Parliament

[ozbob]

Spotlight on Australia's Capital Cities  click here! External PDF

Page 37 Congestion costs is interesting ..

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Brisbane's planning praised but lags behind Adelaide, Sydney panned

Brisbane's planning praised but lags behind Adelaide, Sydney panned

    * From: The Courier-Mail
    * June 13, 2010 8:39PM

BRISBANE was praised for having good planning policies, but Adelaide has been lauded as the country's best-planned and most functional city.

Sydney languishes in last place of a KPMG audit, commissioned by an an alliance of property groups, which ranks capitals on city planning, including population growth management, traffic congestion, and house affordability.

The audit found smaller cities like Adelaide, Canberra and Darwin functioned the best, with Adelaide praised for being affordable and well-planned.

Melbourne, Perth and Sydney ranked poorly, with Sydney panned for being unaffordable with too much traffic and poor planning policies that were not implemented properly.

Melbourne was a mixed bag. The auditors found that good planning policies were in place, but authorities failed to deliver on the ground.

The audit was commissioned by "Built Environment Meets Parliament" (BEMP), an alliance of property groups including the Property Council of Australia and the Australian Institute of Architects.

The average mark for capital cities was 55 per cent. BEMP said the audit was a wake-up call to the federal government to be more hands-on with capital city planning.

Canberra should set a national urban policy with targets, streamline planning approval, and get involved in land release, the group said.

The 'Built Environment Meets Parliament property alliance will hold a summit in Parliament House on Wednesday to talk about what should be done to address poor planning policies for cities.

[#Metro]

I think the report has a narrow scope.
What about rural regions or regional areas like Caboolture, Townsville, Toowoomba, Rockhampton?
Plenty of space there, start afresh etc. These areas can be the next places for cities, not Yarrabilla, Flagstone and that other place - Ripley.

[longboi]

They are on a completely different scale to the cities mentioned in the report.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Brisbane planning 'second best'

Brisbane planning 'second best'
DANIEL HURST
June 14, 2010 - 12:34PM

Brisbane is the second-best-planned capital city in Australia, according to a new report released by industry lobby groups.

The report ranks the nation's capital cities based on criteria such as land release policies, infrastructure planning, urban design and co-operation among government agencies.

Melbourne is singled out in the KPMG report as the best-performer with a score of 69 per cent against the criteria drawn up by federal, state and territory leaders late last year.

Brisbane is next on the list with 64 per cent, followed by Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Sydney. The smaller capitals of Darwin (44 per cent) and Hobart (38 per cent) are at the bottom of the list when compared with their bigger rivals.

The report was commissioned by a group of planning-focused industry organisations including the Property Council of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects, the Green Building Council of Australia, the Planning Institute of Australia and engineering body Consult Australia.

The document, Spotlight on Australia's Capital Cities, applauds the Queensland government on its existing South-East Queensland regional plan and the related infrastructure plan.

But it calls for better planning of development in existing built-up areas and slams inconsistencies between some growth plans and environmental policies.

The report also notes the state government's increasing reliance on its Urban Land Development Authority to "fast track" development in key areas, suggesting work in other areas will simply follow the standard "slow track".

Brisbane - together with Melbourne - scored eight out of 10 under the "plans" category, but the Sunshine State capital did not fare so well on its approach to releasing land for development, with a mark of four.

The alliance of industry groups that commissioned the report, Built Environment Meets Parliament, will meet this week with politicians and decision makers at a summit in Parliament House in Canberra.

Australian Institute of Architects chief executive David Parken said he believed the integrated planning strategy for South-East Queensland was backed up with an "appropriate" level of budget funding and infrastructure spending.

"Brisbane has learnt that you have to plan; if you don't have a plan, things don't happen," he said.

"[But] none of the scores are outstanding and I think some of the things that can be improved are some cross-co-ordination particularly between different departments."

Mr Parken said the private sector received mixed messages when government departments failed to work closely with each other.

"The private sector wants to have confidence that there's a very clear vision about what needs to happen. Sometimes that vision's not properly articulated."

The report comes amid ongoing public debate over South-East Queensland's ability to deal with rapid population growth.

The Bligh government, which organised a growth management summit three months ago, has announced plans to develop new cities in the Ripley Valley (south-west of Ipswich), Yarrabilba (south-west of Beenleigh) and Flagstone (near Jimboomba).

It also wants to create a new planning agency called Growth Management Queensland and pull together existing infrastructure plans into a state-wide planning document from next year.

The state government last year finished a review of its existing regional plan which spells out which parts of South-East Queensland are off-limits to development.

Local governments including Brisbane City Council have their own planning schemes that show what types of buildings are allowed and where, in line with the overarching state plan. Brisbane City Council's latest budget allocates $128 million to city planning over the next 12 months.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and state and territory leaders agreed late last year on criteria to measure capital city planning processes.

The criteria included planning for big-ticket economic infrastructure such as transport corridors, international gateways, and the earmarking of land for future expansion.

Planning should be integrated across various government agencies and focus not only on the short term but also on the medium and long term.

Other goals included setting clear timelines, strengthening the connections between capital cities and major regional centres, releasing new land for development appropriately and encouraging world-class urban design and architecture.

Planners also had to take into account nationally-significant policy issues including population growth, demographic change, climate change, social inclusion, health, well being and housing affordability.

The Council of Australian Governments decided that all states should have plans in place that meet the national criteria by January 2012.

The COAG Reform Council will review the capital cities against the new criteria this year and next year.

[somebody]

Have they been to Brisbane?

The only thing that makes any sense to me is that they are impressed by the Springfield development plans.

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Melbourne's liveability under threat as population grows, experts warn

Melbourne's liveability under threat as population grows, experts warn

    * Karen Collier
    * From: Herald Sun
    * June 14, 2010 12:00AM

CLOGGED roads, crowded public transport and unaffordable housing are threatening Melbourne's liveability as its growth outstrips the rest of Australia, experts warn.

An audit to find the nation's most "functional" city found Melbourne has the best planning policies.

But we fell behind Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Brisbane and Darwin in the overall survey.

It measured management of population growth, traffic congestion, housing affordability and spending on projects.

Melbourne at least fared better than Sydney, which finished last in the KPMG audit commissioned by an alliance including the Property Council of Australia and the Australian Institute of Architects.

PCA chief Peter Verwer said Melbourne risked more traffic snarls and runaway house prices without a more co-ordinated planning approach.

The city's population is expected to hit eight million by 2056.

Mr Verwer said a woeful track record of forecasting population increases across Australia had put a huge strain on water and energy supplies, roads, housing and transport.

"Without strategies that are actually implemented, housing will become more expensive and traffic congestion even worse," he said.

The capitals were also not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change, the report said. The "Built Environment Meets Parliament" alliance, which commissioned it, said it was a wake-up call to the Federal Government to get more involved with capital city planning.

Canberra should set a national urban policy with targets, streamline planning approval and get involved in land release, the group said. BEMP will hold a summit at Parliament House, Canberra on Wednesday.

Victoria's Deputy Premier, Rob Hulls, has previously said rapid population growth was not affecting the quality of life enjoyed by Victorians.

But Opposition Leader Ted Bailleu has warned that rampant population growth and poor planning is fuelling crime and urban sprawl.

- with AAP