Beyond rezoning: delivering liveable neighbourhoods - Melbourne Design Week

Hosted by Monash Urban Lab & RMIT Centre for Urban Research as part of Melbourne Design Week

In response to the housing crisis, Australian governments have rezoned land close to public transport with the aim of enabling apartments in once low-rise neighbourhoods. In Melbourne and Sydney alone, the Activity Centre Program, Suburban Rail Loop Precincts and the Transport Oriented Development Program are projecting adding over 600,000 homes to existing neighbourhoods - three times the amount of homes in Canberra. While the concept of supporting more people to live and work in well-located areas is a strong one - with potential health, productivity and sustainability benefits - there are many risks and challenges with relying on rezoning alone to deliver urban transformation. 

In this workshop, we will bring together those with a stake in this type of urban transformation - known as redfield development - such as local and state governments, community members, developers, funders, builders, planners and urban designers. We will map out a vision for how redfield development can deliver healthy and liveable neighbourhoods, such as place-based plans that include what makes a neighbourhood liveable: parks, tree-lined streets, schools and libraries, and tools like government curation, land assembly, value capture, and targeted investment to make it happen.

This workshop will be an opportunity to share findings from ‘Future Urban Planning Scenarios for Better Health’ a research project funded by VicHealth. This project investigates the impact of different planning and residential density scenarios on the daily lives of people. We will share our case study Niddrie Activity Centre including perspectives prospective future residents as part of our Community Prospective Panel and how different scenarios have delivered better health and wellbeing outcomes. 

Katherine Sundermann, Monash University

Katherine is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at Monash University focused on public interest outcomes in city design and governance.

Oscar McLennan, Ys Housing

Oscar is Co-Founder and CEO of Ys Housing, a Melbourne-based developer focused on delivering innovative and affordable housing.

Andrew Butt, RMIT University

Andrew is a Professor of Urban Planning in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT.

Pat Fensham, SGS Economics

Pat is a Principal & Partner at SGS Economics and Planning and current Victorian President of the Planning Institute of Australia.