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Field of DreamsPlanning for the future isn’t as cut and dried as providing money

for infrastructure, as NICOLE BITTAR discovers

“Melbourne’s planning for suburban residential expansion is the envy of the nation”

IT’S a well-worn line from a cheesy 1980s film, “If you build it, they will come”, but it evokes fresh resonance in relation to new housing estates. But whom is building what, whom will come, how will they get there and why should new-home buyers move to Melbourne’s Urban Growth Zones?

With increasing residential development in outlying regions and an estimated population increase of 100,000 each year according to Real Estate Institute of Victoria figures, solid infrastructure investment is more important than ever.

This is the overriding message of outgoing REIV chief executive Enzo Raimondo, who said “amenities investment in suburbs more than 20km from the city is necessary for these suburbs to remain attractive to home buyers”.

“Given the significant growth in Melbourne’s outer suburbs in the past two quarters, improved road and rail infrastructure will drive continued price growth in areas further from the city and within commuting distance of the CBD,” Raimondo said.

Coupled with new Budget measures, including $2.9 billion for Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel, $1.46 billion for the Western Distributor, $924 million for new and upgraded schools, and $982 million in improvements to the state’s health system, the future looks bright for an infrastructure/new housing estate duality in Victoria.

The Housing Industry Association said with new home starts remaining strong (around 200,000 in 2016), it was important to see innovative solutions to our cities’

infrastructure challenges to meet the long-term needs of Australia’s growing and ageing population. But is this the case?

Malcolm Turnbull’s Smart Cities plan, announced in April, promises to eradicate the blank-cheque mentality of bygone eras for infrastructure projects. Instead, a $50 million budget to accelerate development planning between the Commonwealth and private funders will be implemented.

The policy document promotes the concept of a “30-minute city” – one in which, “no matter where you live, you can easily access the places you need to visit on a daily basis”. Such cities will allow people to live further from the CBD, making new housing more appealing and affordable.

The document states that pressure is growing on “housing affordability, access to local jobs and our natural environment, as well as increasing congestion and traffic”. And that the government will “prioritise projects that meet broader economic and city objectives, such as accessibility, jobs, affordable housing and healthy environments”.

ALBERT George Dennis, OAM, who heads Dennis Family Corporation and is better known as Bert, is more circumspect about the government-private practice duality.

“A major problem in funding new infrastructure in growth

areas is the timing between collecting the contribution and building the infrastructure. While contributions are collected progressively, infrastructure cannot be built progressively. For example, you can’t build half a bridge if that’s all the collected funding allows. It can’t be constructed progressively or incrementally; it has to be built in its entirety. Therefore, we believe governments need to fund new infrastructure up front to allow it to proceed in a timely manner, and progressively collect contributions from developers,” Dennis said.

Dennis recalls in the early 1980s, the Federal Government in Australia was using its superior borrowing capability to provide loans and grants to the states and municipalities for the provision of infrastructure. But it opted in 1984 to head down the “user-pays” path.

“At the time, it was providing $10 billion per annum in loans and grants to the states. Over the next decade, this $10 billion yearly sum was reduced to zero, which has subsequently reduced the level of infrastructure now in the ground,” Dennis said.

Pressure was also placed on Australia’s states and municipalities to reduce their borrowings for infrastructure. By the mid-1990s, municipalities started to impose development contributions. The development industry then sought to pass these costs back to the original landowner when acquiring properties for future development. But when this was hampered by shortages of broad hectare supplies, the costs

were ultimately passed on to the eventual lot purchaser.“The infrastructure that was provided in the 1980s was

gradually used up and there is little spare capacity left,” he said.

THE heady days of the 1980s seem a distant memory to agent for change and chief executive officer at Woodlea Estate, Matt Dean. As one of the largest master-planned communities in Australia, Woodlea Estate at Rockbank - about 27km west of the CBD - will undoubtedly be a huge asset to its area, said Dean, with an investment of $2.5 billion into the economy and a further $200 million into the delivery of new community infrastructure and assets.

Woodlea will span 711 hectares and feature 7000 new houses, which will be home to about 20,000 new residents. The sociological benefits are equally impressive.

“New housing estates have a great responsibility to meet the demands of Australia’s future population, including the estimated 80,000 students across Victoria in the next five years,” Dean said.

“This is why Woodlea is working with the State Government to help deliver its policy of Victoria becoming the Education State, with a provision for four future school sites within the masterplan. Furthermore, an agreement has already been

OPPOSITE PAGE: Airports are just one small cog of the infrastructure puzzle Picture: CRAIG NEWELL

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signed with Bacchus Marsh Grammar School to deliver a private primary school (Prep to Year 6).

“Providing new infrastructure, and delivering it up front in the development lifecycle is an invaluable facet to consider when creating Australia’s new housing estates.”

He insists that a relationship with local and state governments was vital to ensuring the ongoing support and delivery of objectives to residents of these estates.

“At Woodlea, we have worked closely with the state of Victoria across numerous initiatives from day one,” Dean said.

METROPOLITAN Planning Authority’s Victorian chief executive Peter Seamer mirrors Dean’s views on new housing’s popularity and proactivity.

He agreed that Melbourne’s outer suburbs were proving to be very popular, with waiting lists needed for many new estates.

“One large factor driving this growth is housing affordability, with land and property prices in Melbourne’s growth communities being about 40 per cent lower than Sydney’s equivalent,” Seamer said. “Further to this, the abundance of green space and well-designed new town centres that are within 1km of 90 per cent of all houses are also driving buyer interest in new estates.”

Planning for good transport is central to the way the MPA designs new suburbs. Underpinning this are the Victorian Government’s Precinct Structure Planning (PSP) guidelines, which outline key requirements that all new suburbs must meet. These guidelines state that adequate transport facilities must be included in the design of new areas, allowing residents to travel to shops, jobs, schools and other key services safely and efficiently.

“When planning new precincts, the MPA ensures new suburbs are appropriately connected to the arterial road network, so residents can travel with ease to the rest of Melbourne. The State Government collects a levy from

developers, known as the Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution, which has been used to fund roads. The GAIC can pay for up to 15 per cent of state infrastructure works in growth areas,” he said.

However, Seamer said it was worth noting one of the MPA’s key roles was to increase jobs in Melbourne’s middle and outer suburbs, ease congestion on roads and public transport, and give people back precious family time. It is planning for the growth of six National Employment Clusters, including the existing clusters of Monash, Parkville and South Dandenong and future clusters at Sunshine, La Trobe and East Werribee.

“By creating jobs in our middle and outer suburbs, people living in new growth areas will have the opportunity to work closer to their homes,” Seamer said.

THIS is a widely promoted imperative. Infrastructure Victoria (IV), the federal statutory authority co-ordinating infrastructure, recently supported the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria’s calls for major transport infrastructure.

Director of Strategy Adele McCarthy said IV was undertaking an extensive community consultation with all levels of government, private sector and non-government stakeholders, academics and researchers, professional associations and interest groups, and the broader community, to canvass all views.

IV is also running two citizen juries – one in metropolitan Melbourne and one in regional Victoria – whereby 43 everyday people will read evidence, hear testimony, deliberate and eventually make recommendations.

This consultation will inform the draft and final strategy, which McCarthy said would be submitted to Parliament by the end of the year.

“We know that many new suburbs in high-growth areas already suffer from a shortage of infrastructure, particularly access to convenient public transport solutions,” McCarthy said.

Infrastructure: the world around usFrom a global perspective, the view looks rosy. A universal focus on implementing sustainable infrastructure practices is on the agenda, irrespective of sociological or economical status.

The United Nations recently issued a report on the need for developing sustainable infrastructure for the world’s cities. It is clear the economic benefits of healthy infrastructure match the environmental ones.

More than 30 projects sourced globally earned recognition for setting benchmarks in sustainable infrastructure. Noteworthy are the proposed zero-carbon desert city of Masdar in the United Arab Emirates, which aims to wrap buildings in solar panels angled to capture wind energy, as well as an electric transport system that will be anchored around personal transit pods.

In Vaxjo, a city of 82,000 in the south of Sweden, a fossil fuel-free program that began in 1996 aims to decrease emissions 100 per cent by 2030. And the Brazilian city of Curitiba is lauded for its bus-rapid transport system, but its most impressive sustainability measures have come through waste-management

programs. Much of this success has come from providing the community incentives to recycle, including officials offering bus passes in exchange for bags of waste.

More than ever, nations big and small, rich and poor, are recognising the implicit need to implement practices that will benefit future generations and, ultimately, the planet. The World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 defined sustainable infrastructure as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”.

In the long run, the main goal of sustainable infrastructure is to promote sustainable living among the entire population. One such community doing exactly that is Ashton Hayes, a village of about 1000 people in England that aims to be carbon neutral. According to its development plan, it hopes to return to hydroelectric power and plant 16,000 trees, among other sustainably meritorious initiatives.

If 1000 residents can adopt a collective carbon-neutral footprint in their region, imagine the economical and environmental gains if a city of 5.2 million inhabitants, such as Melbourne, makes the long-term switch to developing and maintaining sustainable infrastructure.- Nicole Bittar

Buses, health facilities and trains (opposite, top) are major infrastructure elements that planners consider for the future in urban growth areas

Pictures: CRAIG NEWELL, images courtesy of Public Transport Victoria

OPPOSITE PAGEWind energy is central to the zero-carbon city ambitions of Masdar in the UAE Picture: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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REVERSING the trend with infrastructure first and land sales later, Stonybrook Hillside is happy to buck the trend.

“Unlike a lot of new house-and-land developments, residents coming to Stonybrook don’t have to worry about when all the lifestyle amenities will be delivered, they are already here to embrace and enjoy,” YourLand Developments director Mark Erskine said.

Erskine knows that successful new housing estates depend on the “ability to create broadly appealing communities with rich social fabric and the company achieves this by being authentic, highly collaborative and genuinely caring”.

He said Stonybrook has shifted the timing for pre-selling allotments to the later stages of the process to focus on providing buyers with certainty on timing.

Potential residents will also benefit from an established residential community, with shopping centres,

schools, parks and public transport at their doorstep. It is near Watergardens Town Centre, arterial roads, golf courses, wineries, national parks, schools and many more essential lifestyle and community services.

Stony Hill Creek, one of Melbourne’s most significant waterways, is a key visual element of the project and was reconfigured to create a scenic lake in the heart of the development.

“As well as the Stage 1 land release, we also have a number of architecturally designed homes for sale, suited to buyers who want to move straight in,” Erskine said.

“Having partnered with four key builders at Stonybrook, we are already experiencing a high level of interest because the builders have clients looking for titled land, so they can build right now.

“We have witnessed, first hand, the huge demand for new homes across

“We also know that in the next 30 years, these outer-suburban areas will continue to grow at a rapid rate, and that much of the population growth forecast for Victoria will be concentrated within these high-growth areas. As a result, we are looking at a range of ways to address the existing gaps and manage future demand, particularly around how to connect communities living in outer metropolitan Melbourne with jobs,” McCarthy said.

Measures being considered include extending rail or tram lines, improving timetabling for better integration across the network and extending or improving bus or mass-transit networks. Others might include pricing mechanisms to make the transport system – including our roads and public transport system – more efficient.

“We also need to think more broadly about the role of information and communications technology, flexible working conditions and options to bring people and jobs closer together, to reduce the need to travel.

“Public transport will be an important part of the strategy, and we’ve heard strong support from the community for improvements. But our infrastructure strategy does not just look at transport; it looks at nine sectors, including education, health and housing, information and communications technology, justice and emergency services, energy, water and waste, agriculture, science and environment, and civic, cultural, tourism and recreation.

“We are preparing an options paper with nearly 300 ideas for Victoria’s future. At this stage, everything is on the table, but we need the community’s help to prioritise what we proceed with.”

Victorian president of the Planning Institute Australia, James Larmour-Reid, concurs with McCarthy.

“The focus of public attention in Melbourne has been expensive infrastructure projects. Melbourne Metro, East-West link, railway, road and rail-grade separation,” Larmour-Reid said. “Few Melburnians, however, would realise that the apparent rush to implement grade separation along the Pakenham/Cranbourne/Frankston lines has as much to do with rapid population growth in the south-east and the urgent need to deliver improved rail capacity for city commuters, as it does with rail safety and traffic movement.

“Melbourne’s planning is guided by Plan Melbourne, which is currently being ‘refreshed’ to bring it up to date with the latest thinking. The MPA uses this document to help develop plans at a growth corridor level, and at an even finer level, Precinct Structure Plans (PSPs),” he said.

“These mandate the structural form of suburbs and provide the basis for cost calculation of development contributions (DCPs) for specific infrastructure, including roads and community facilities that will be the responsibility of VicRoads or council in the future. The land developer is required to provide DCP funds for the nominated purposes, and is also

subject to a Growth Area Infrastructure Charge (GAIC), which is available for other state infrastructure, dependent upon need.

“While facilities funded by DCPs are linked to specific timing estimates, GAIC funds are controlled by State Treasury and require a business case-like proposal for the release of money for works.

“As a part of the development of PSPs, the MPA co-ordinates with the planning programs of state agencies such as Public Transport Victoria, Melbourne Water and the water supply agencies,” Larmour-Reid said.

He added that the provision of most rail infrastructure, recurrent costs for bus services, and major freeway works are not included in the funding, and are the responsibility of the state and Commonwealth.

News that the Commonwealth has created a Minister for Cities role to develop a program for city improvement has been welcomed. It is anticipated this initiative will continue as bipartisan policy after the next election, and hopefully funds will be provided for major infrastructure in a carefully considered way.

“Both the state and land developers monitor the housing market closely to ensure that demand does not exceed supply – placing upward pressure on housing prices, as appears to be the case in Sydney, for example. Melbourne’s relatively affordable housing prices are a combination of good planning, a land supply that meets population needs, and a competitive market for housing delivery,” Larmour-Reid said.

“THE development of Melbourne’s suburbs has changed dramatically in a generation. Places that were on the fringe of Melbourne in the 1980s and ’90s are now well-established suburbs. Long-sought-after services have generally been provided. Although Melbourne’s boundary has extended to

accommodate its extraordinary anticipated growth towards a city of nearly eight million residents, difficulties experienced by this generation of young families on the fringe are different to those experienced in an earlier era,” Larmour-Reid said.

“They are a consequence, not of poor planning, but of such fast growth to a large city.

“Melbourne’s planning for suburban residential expansion is the envy of the nation. Sydney and Brisbane face similar rapid growth, but have prepared less systematically for the delivery of amenities and infrastructure.

“Sydney in particular is still playing planning catch-up after years of population growth-denial starting with the former Bob Carr Labor government.

“The combination of natural population growth and sustained high immigration has destined the nation to be home to three of the world’s larger cities in the next few decades,” Larmour-Reid concluded.

The final word goes to Adele McCarthy from Infrastructure Victoria.

“Our 30-year infrastructure strategy will be a blueprint for Victoria’s future needs, but it will be the big picture, not the whole picture,” McCarthy said.

“Once we’ve mapped out a vision, there is still a lot of work to be done by state and local governments and relevant agencies, in consultation with local communities, to roll out the necessary infrastructure.

“Our strategy will help to identify new and innovative ways of ensuring all communities – including those living in new housing estates, inner-city areas, regional cities and rural areas – can access the services they need.

“During our consultation phase, we will be encouraging people to bring forward new ideas, including suggestions for how we can use technology to better access services. We also invite people to point out anything that we’ve missed.”

Melbourne, and noticed that buyers are keen to secure their future as soon as it becomes available.

“Buying land off the plan suits those who are happy to wait for the title to come through. However, if you don’t, it can be a source of frustration, and many buyers find it difficult to plan around,” Erskine said.

Future releases will provide options for land and houses available, with the Stage 2 release already constructed.

YourLand Developments was established seven years ago in Bendigo.

“We have found success by adapting each of our unique projects to respond to the needs and wants of each market and Stonybrook is yet another example of understanding the market and responding,” Erskine said.

For more details about the development, visit stonybrook.com.au

The MYKI ticketing system is used by millions of people each year, something that urban planners must consider, years in advance

Picture: CRAIG NEWELL, image courtesy of Public Transport Victoria