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Suburban sprawl to solve Melbourne's housing crisis

After almost a decade in power the Victorian government has realised that we are experiencing a housing shortage—the solution: allow even more urban sprawl.

With petrol prices increasing, with one of the highest per capita greenhouse emissions per capita, with one of the most underdeveloped public transport system in the ‘developed’ world, and one of the lowest urban population density in the world,* how sustainable and/or responsible is this approach?

Suburban sprawl to solve Melbourne's housing crisis
ABC News March4, 2008

Quote:
The Victorian Government is planning to open up tracks of land within Melbourne's urban growth boundary to ease the city's housing shortage.

Rezoning of land in 5 growth corridors, including Melton-Caroline Springs in the west; Casey Cardinia in the east; and Whittlesea in the north-east, will be fast tracked to provide enough space to build tens of thousands of new homes.

According to the government up to 1200 people are moving to Melbourne each week and while there is enough zoned land for the next 7 to 8 years, the new plan will provide land into 2018.

The Planning Minister Justin Madden says demand for land is greater than has been anticipated.

"We have experiences enormous growth in the last couple of years, in particular in the last 12 months, and the trends will continue and so all growth boundaries in Melbourne will be opened up," he said.
(...)

Continue reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/04/2178937.htm

 

Comments

  • anthony
    edited November -1
    This is very important and I wonder how will arch-peace follow this up.
  • simon seasons
    edited November -1
    Uh! It is just so depressing to think that the same old same old solution will propably prevail. It is just the heatache of hearing and seeing and knowing that mediocrity is king in this country. It might have to take the impending fuel crisis, when oil finally runs out, for any Australian government to legislate that apartment living for cities is the only viable way for a modern city to exist. But currently, Anthony, it wouldn't matter if arch-peace went blue in the face about about it. The suburban sprawl will remain the God given right of myriad 'suburbanites'. You might as well try and explain that Ned kelly was actually a murdering thief as to try and tell them that their 1/4 acre macmansioned lifstyle is grand larceny from their grandchildrens earthly inheritence.
    Better for us who know better to just keep plugging away at promoting the alternative. When I am qualified, I intend to set up a practice that specialises in converting old buildings into apartments. I just can't afford the energy trying to convert mediocrity in any other way.
    Another positive way to look at it is that in twenty, thirty years time a lot of these slums will be either up for vertical subdivision anyway or the bulldozers will be converting them back into parkland.
  • beatriz
    edited December 2008
    <p><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt">Now some more depressing news for Victoria Australia, a country with already one of the world highest car dependency and greenhouse emissions per capita.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
    <p><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt">Apart from risking loosing the next elections, are governments, such as this in Victoria, legally liable in any way for their acts against the environment and social sustainability?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
    <p><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt">Ignorance among these politicians is rampant; the business conceded to developers by the same politicians, at the expense of the environment and social wellbeing (through healthy accessible and well serviced cities) is rather impossible to comprehend. Apart from the CBD and closest suburbs, Melbourne is not a city, Melbourne is an urban sprawl of a well arranged and nicely spaced cemetery, revered by those politicians too lazy or ignorant to imagine any better.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
    <p style="margin-left: 40px"><span style="font-size: larger"><b>Go-ahead for urban sprawl</b></span> </p>
    <p style="margin-left: 40px">    * Marc Moncrief

        * December 3, 2008</p>
    <p style="margin-left: 40px">THE Victorian Government has all but given up on a long-standing pledge to contain Melbourne's urban sprawl, announcing another big expansion of the metropolitan boundary for new housing.</p>
    <p style="margin-left: 40px">Six years after setting a "clear boundary" for the city in the Melbourne 2030 policy, the Government has succumbed to a booming population, a housing shortage and resistance to high-density development in established suburbs.

    Find this article: <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/goahead-for-urban-sprawl-20081202-6ps9.html?page=-1">http://www.theage.com.au/national/goahead-for-urban-sprawl-20081202-6ps9.html?page=-1</a></p>
    <p> </p>
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