University of Canberra Commercial Precinct Study

Although not strictly about urban and regional planning this was a report written for my statistics based unit at University of Canberra. I thought it had some interesting planning aspects so I'm posting it here.


PERCommercialPrecinctReportFinal.pdf

Yass Town Strategic Plan

Yass Town Final Copy

Importance of Indicators in Strategic Plans

Indicators are an important way of measuring the success of strategic plans by monitoring the plans priorities and outcomes. It is important to monitor and measure the success of strategic plans to see if the goals and outcomes our being achieved and if they are not then changes may need to be made to actions and/or priorities or the plan may have to be changed in its entirety. Indicators vary depending on the plan and what they measure. Some indicators our based on baseline data and therefore are easy to measure for example foot fall other indicators like quality of life and state of the environment can be harder to measure although there are models that can be used.

Plans which focus on easily measurable indicators from baseline data such as the Queanbeyan CBD Master Plan and to a lesser extent the Canberra City Plan can lose focus on the community just to deliver these figures to show the effectiveness of the plan which is not ideal. Although plans which focus on things harder to measure like Bristol 2020 plan also tread a fine line, being difficult to measure the effectiveness of the plan. A combination of easily measurable and more complex indicators help make the best plan. Indicators are very important because without a way of measuring the success of a strategic plan it is just an academic exercise.

References

Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate , 2012. ACT Planning Stratergy , Canberra: ACT Government.

Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, 2013. The City Plan, Canberra: ACT Government.

Leyshon Consulting, 2009. Queanbeyan CBD Master Plan, Sydney: Leyshon Consulting PTY LTD.

McMahon, S. K., 2002. The development of quality of life indicators—a case study from the City of Bristol, UK, Bristol: Elsevier.

The Bristol Partnership, n.d. The Bristol 20:20 Plan, Bristol: Synergy Creative.

Importance of Capital Metro - Canberra as a Great Global City

Capital metro is very important much needed piece of infrastructure although controversial especially if you believe the Canberra Times. Canberra has always been designed to have rail and the large wide median strips show this; but this has never happened. Canberra’s reliance on cars needs to be broken to deal with many issues such as growth in population, sustainability and higher fuel prices, (ACT Government, 2012).

 The first stage is Gungahlin to civic is controversial option but really this makes sense because currently Northbourne avenue is currently a pressure point for public transport, public transport from civic to Gungahlin doesn’t work, this is because there is no bus priority along Northbourne, (ACT Government, 2014). Options to rectify this are to make the left lane along Northbourne a bus only lane which would congest traffic further or the light rail. One obvious answer the light rail its good for Canberra and needed for the future, (Hass, 2014). 

The other thing building capital metro is facilitating is the Northbourne corridor revamp which will completely change Canberra’s image for tourists as they drive in from dilapidated housing commission buildings to nice modern mixed use buildings, more people and more vibrancy, (ACT Government, Land Development Agency, 2014) .

Bibliography

ACT Government, Land Development Agency, 2014. Northbourne Housing Precinct. [Online]
Available at: http://www.lda.act.gov.au/en/northbourne-avenue-corridor

ACT Government, 2012. Transport for Canberra, Canberra: Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate.

ACT Government, 2014. Capital Metro. [Online]
Available at: http://www.capitalmetro.act.gov.au/

Hass, D. C., 2014. ACT Light Rail. [Online]
Available at: http://www.actlightrail.info/
[Accessed 21 October 2014].

City to the Lake

City to the Lake is Canberra’s largest urban renewal project if the ACT government gets around to it. It will bring Canberra’s CBD to West Basin bridging across Parks Way. This Project needs to be done very carefully and needs to enhance not worsen the aesthetic appeal of Lake Burley Griffin. While I do believe this project needs to happen I’m not sure now is a suitable time, not to be to negative but with recent hits to Canberra’s economy and retail struggling around the city I think adding large new retail spaces just won’t work.

Increasing Civics population by building high density housing in the centre of the city as has been seen in New Acton could make this project more viable in the future. On the positive side this project will deliver much needed accommodation in the centre of the city and even more importantly deliver much needed infrastructure, (ACT Government, Environment and Sustainable Development, 2012). Within the City to the lake plan is a new Aquatics Centre, Stadium and land reserved for a new convention centre.

 New Aquatics facilities and a stadium are desperately needed for Canberra and I would start this project by building the new aquatics facility and stadium and then re-evaluate the rest of the project once that is complete, (ACT Government, Environment and Sustainable Development, 2012).

References

ACT Government, Environment and Sustainable Development, 2012. ACT Planning Strategy, Canberra: ACT Government.

Update

Just updating you all my last post and the next 3 are a part of this semesters assessable

  work of 4, 200 words Forum Post spread across the semester. I'm sorry they are brief but I am restricted by the 200 word limit.

Evaluation Tools and Systems

Accessibility is an vital consideration in urban and regional planning however it is rarely considered for policy evaluation from the viewpoint of individuals' quality of life (QoL), (Doi, et al., 2007). Physical accessibility can be split into two key categories: transport and Activity. Transport is simply travel distance, time, cost for various modes of transport, Activity refers to the amount and location of opportunities, (Doi, et al., 2007). The evaluation of QoL has changed throughout time and has recently been evaluated as satisfaction/availability of resources, (Doi, et al., 2007). this is no longer an accurate way to evaluate QoL a more comprehensive approach is needed to understand QoL and how strategic urban planning can enhance QoL, (Khalil, 2012). Five key aspects are to be considered when planning these are safety and security, economic opportunity, service and cultural opportunity and environmental benignity these five areas can replace Felce and Perry’s five areas of QoL which although were multidimensional the cannot be easily applied, (Khalil, 2012). When these Five aspects are applied in urban planning healthier cities can be created and flow on effects are seen. Using these aspects in strategic planning helps lead to less inequality, more recreation, lowing of mental health issues and healthier places to live all round, (Barton & Tsourou, 2013).

Bibliography

Barton, H. & Tsourou, C., 2013. Healthy Urban Planning. 1st ed. Copenhagen: Taylor and Francis Group.

Doi, K., Kii , M. & Nakanishi, H., 2007. An integrated evaluation method of accessibility, quality of life, and social interaction, Toyohashi: published online.

Khalil, H. A., 2012. Enhancing quality of life through strategic urban planning. 5th ed. Cairo: Cairo University .