Transcript Resilient cities - Multi-stranded resilience through strong city centres

Multi-stranded resilience
through
strong city centres
Rod Duncan FPIA
Good City consultancy
Rod Duncan
• Planning practitioner & educator
• Various public sector roles mainly in
‘regional capitals’ (including Bendigo & Geelong)
• Associate Professor, Deakin Uni 2010-14
• Fellow & c’tee of Planning Institute of Aust.
Rod Duncan
• Good City consultancy since 2010.
• Advising local govt, business & community
bodies, esp. on strengthening city centres.
• Recent review of 30 ‘western’ cities across
UK, USA, Canada and Europe
SAN FRANCISCO
MONTREAL
PORTLAND
VANCOUVER
BRISTOL
TURIN
LONDON
BIRMINGHAM
3 Key points
• Strong city centres are potentially the single
best thing for achieving resilience –
social cohesion, economic prosperity & envt’l sustainability
3 Key points
• Strong city centres are potentially the single
best thing for achieving resilience –
social cohesion, economic prosperity & envt’l sustainability
• To achieve our preferred future, we need to
rediscover Planning.
[& why Plan Melbourne is dangerous!]
3 Key points
• Strong city centres are potentially the single
best thing for achieving resilience –
social cohesion, economic prosperity & envt’l sustainability
• To achieve our preferred future, we need to
rediscover Planning.
[& why Plan Melbourne is dangerous!]
• Tools for transition – we need structures,
processes & skills that are ‘fit for purpose’
The imperatives
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Climate change / Global warming / GHG
Peak oil, congestion & amenity
Population growth
Demographic and technological changes
Natural disasters – greater frequency & severity
Economic shocks – the new normal?
The imperatives
• Climate change / Global warming / GHG
• Peak oil, congestion & amenity
= Low carbon future (by policy or scarcity)
• Population growth
Melbourne: + 100,000 per year (~2.5%)
(unusually rapid for a Western city)
The big challenges
• Acute vulnerability of Australian cities due
to high car dependency
• Rapid transformation – is required (and
already happening due to growth)
• but … have we aligned outcomes to the
needs of our imminent future?
Resilience – my take:
• Social, economic & environmental
• Social participation, inclusion & cohesion
• Economic diversity & prosperity
• Environmentally sustainable
• Inter-dependent & mutually beneficial
[In urban affairs
Everything is connected to everything else.]
It doesn’t matter which tentacle you pull …
It doesn’t matter which tentacle you pull …
you’ll always get an octopus.
http://www.vcccar.org.au/publication/think-tankreport/toward-resilient-regional-city-centres
Resilience is “a multi-stranded rope”
Capacity to absorb & recover from shocks
-
economic, social & environmental robustness
1. Strong city centres
• Busy, multi-functional cluster of uses
at the hub of transport networks (local, region, capital link)
• Diversity of functions in close proximity to each other
(‘agglomeration’ benefits – generate economic activity, alliances, innovation)
• Well connected to all; variety of transport modes
(not dependent on car use)
• Change pressures need managing to safeguard
‘the public interest’ - forward strategy & active brokering
[multi-functional hub]
retailing
[multi-functional hub]
civic
ADMINISTRATION
offices
retailing
restaurants
[multi-functional hub]
arts
civic
hospitality
ADMINISTRATION
trade
services
offices
transport
restaurants
hub
cinemas
retailing
library
hospitality
park
BANKS
ADMINISTRATION
university
trade
services
SCHOOLS
offices transport
restaurants
hub
cinemas
sports
retailing library
Hospital
churches
entertainment
civic
arts
accommodation
[multi-functional hub]
EXETER
Multiple values of strong
city centres
• Economic - diverse, ‘agglomerated’
stimulating innovation
• Social - identity, pride, inclusion, cohesion,
participation
• Environmental - greatest prospect for
achieving sustainability
(= thriving survival)
Economic prosperity
• Diversified economic base – resilient to shocks
• Enhanced by ‘agglomeration’ of businesses &
non-business activities in physical proximity
• Incidental / random encounters generate new
enterprises & stimulate innovation
Social cohesion & identity
• Civic pride & distinctive identity
• Ready recognition – tourists; policy-makers
• Inclusion and participation (workforce, community)
• Venue for formal & informal activities &
celebrations
• Sense of ownership & belonging
Sustainability
• Arguably the greatest prospect for
achieving environmental sustainability
• Ready access without requiring private car
• Multi-purpose journeys along efficient links
Easy benchmark for decisions:
“Will more people need to use a car?”
BIRMINGHAM
2. Re-discover Planning
• Planning ≠ development administration
- just one consequential tool to pursue a plan, it isn’t Planning.
• Planning is …
- Agreeing on a widely shared ‘preferred future’;
- Devising strategies, commitments, investments and processes
to pursue that future.
- Consciously striving for that future, guided by clear principles
and objectives, utilising a wide suite of tools, including
promotion, encouragement, brokering and … regulation.
Good planning …
• Is fundamental to securing a sustainable,
resilient and equitable future at any time,
but
• At times of rapid change and impending
challenges it is essential!
A Plan is a social contract
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Reconciles tensions between public and private interests
‘The public’ can be confident that they get what they
signed up for (not a diluted, expanded substitute) - so
greater prospect of getting support for transformative
change
Pricks the bubble of speculation, so land trades at values
that reflect its agreed use
A fair portion of value uplift can be captured to fund (&
coordinate) necessary infrastructure & services
Provides clarity & certainty for (productive) business &
investment decisions
Provides proactive encouragement, support & brokering
in pursuit of agreed future outcomes
An unplanned future?
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Australian cities, including Melbourne, suffer from weak planning
(Grattan Institute, Committee for Melbourne, etc)
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Heavy reliance on market forces, with limited public policy
leadership to influence the agenda.
In times of rapid change & urgent imperatives, the future
efficiency, functionality and amenity of the city is in jeopardy from
a culture of waiting for problems to emerge before dealing with
them.
Harper Review: anti-planning recommendations
Current ‘anything anywhere’ Commercial Zones
“failed to develop a roads agenda … piggybacking instead on
whatever Transurban proposes” (The Age, 28 Nov 2015)
(Unsolicited Proposals scheme for infrastructure investment)
Change also provides an opportunity for transformation – if managed
carefully & skilfully.
Cities (and markets) can fail
DETROIT
‘Plan Melbourne’ is DANGEROUS!
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Plan Melbourne is not a robust, soundly grounded strategy that
offers a credible or responsible narrative for Melbourne’s
future. (Unlike Melbourne 2030 - great plan, but poor delivery)
Not a Plan, but a marketing pitch
Genesis as an election manifesto, limited public engagement,
lacks a comprehensive, integrated perspective.
Collation of post-justification of political knee-jerk proposals &
pet projects from silo agencies (including some contradictory ones).
• It’s existence & content are likely to induce complacency
… when we urgently need a plan to both manage current
change and address impending challenges.
A collection of silos …
is not an integrated outcome.
Reviving Planning
Enhanced …
• Leadership
• Professionalism
• Transparency
• Honesty!
3. Tools for transition
• Multiple (reactive) planning permit decisions are unlikely
to translate into a coherent urban outcome without
some proactive guidance and brokering – best done at
the local level.
• Segmented delivery by narrowly-based agencies,
professions or work units can readily become
fragmentation.
• Are our governance & delivery mechanisms appropriate
for managing widespread transformation?
• Restructure (& interim arrangements) needed to ensure
aggregate outcomes are the focus, not ‘bits’ in isolation.
Conventional segmentation into specialist fields
Environment Investment
Human Services
Arts & Culture
Business
Engineering
Planning
Economic
Development
Segmentation can become Fragmentation
but, rather than adding another ‘slice’ …
Environment Investment
Human Services
Arts & Culture
Business
Engineering
Planning
Economic
Development
Supplementary mechanism integrating segments
for a specific place
Place-based strategy & delivery
Environment Investment
Human Services
Arts & Culture
Business
Engineering
Planning
Economic
Development
The
Place
 Vision-led
 Joined-up
 Place-based
BENDIGO
Thank you
Rod Duncan
[email protected]
0400 093 503
www.vcccar.org.au/publication/think-tank-report/
toward-resilient-regional-city-centres