180 sq metre blocks

It's not just in Gungahlin then...

This report from the old stomping ground shows the development industry across the board, aided and abetted by local authorities, is waging war against the backyard:

IT was British band Manfred Mann who recorded the 1960s classic hit Semi-detached Suburban Mr Jones.

It described the ordinariness and friendliness of a sociological landscape redolent of the “Mother Country” in the early to mid-twentieth century.
But now “terraced housing” is coming to a suburb near you – Bellvista, to be precise – with lots as small as 180 square metres, though no doubt the styling will be a little more 21st century, and promising a different tune.
And just how many storeys they might consist of is as yet unknown.
Development behemoth Stockland intends to introduce the “product” as part of a massive extension to the Bellvista master-planned community, should it get the tick from Sunshine Coast council.
Overall, the application involves around 750 dwelling units consisting of about 550 detached houses and 200 semis.
The 180 sq m lots would have a width of between seven and 10 metres.

My hypothesis is that they fall into the trap of opponents to "urban sprawl" because they don't want to get serious about providing rapid and efficient public transport. For so many of our policymakers, grasping vision for public transport seems beyond them...

The ACT should be expanded

It is becoming increasingly clear that the ACT is barely sustainable as a financial proposition.

Our city is getting quite run down - not just in the parliamentary triangle where the budget cuts by the current ALP and previous Liberal federal governments have resulted in a distinctly run-down appearance that has been sneaking up on us for several years.

But this problem is across the whole city and Territory. TaMS is looking at budget cuts to basic responsibilities like park maintenance, roads are being resurfaced with crummy chipseal that the bureaucrats acknowledge won't last the full maintenance cycle, potholes repairs can't be kept up with, and all this in a drought - how would they cope if it actually started raining again?

And in new development, the ACT Government is squeezing us into ever shrinking blocks because they are running out of land they can sell into the future. And that's a problem because the ACT budgets just wouldn't stack up if there wasn't more land to sell - more silver in the cupboard so to speak.

The problem is that the ACT is not big enough. Well it is big enough geographically, but for some unfathomable reason, Canberra is right at the northern edge of it.

ACT is at the heart of a wider social, geographic and economic region. As a result the ACT provides the key assets that contribute to the lives of all the people in this much wider region - the hospitals, museums, galleries, roads, water supply, schools, sports, events, and so much more. ACT taxpayers are subsidising NSW residents. And this makes life for Canberra residents so much more expensive.

The solution is obvious, but unfortunately will be dismissed out of hand by most people. The ACT borders need to be expanded out to Bungendore in the east, and north to Murrumbateman, or preferably to Yass to secure a connection with the nation's Number 1 highway.

China does environment big

China may be copping it for derailing Copenhagen, but you can't deny they are already doing plenty of good things.

There's the world's largest solar-powered office building

The world's largest high speed railway, with an 1100km link just opened with average speeds of 350km/hr! And they plan to complete 18,000kms by 2012!

Then there is the world's largest solar power farm to start this year and be completed by 2019, to generate an amazing 2000 MW.

Not talking about it - doing it.

Not certain yet is this stunning plan for a 70-floor forest-office tower.

Could there actually be the vision and sensibility out there to build like this in cities?

What about in our cities??

Density debate redux

The debate arount density flared up again at the launch of Sustainable House Day at the CSIRO Discovery Centre on 8 September 2009, with the Australian Institute of Architects' ACT President David Flannery continuing his attack on suburbs in general and Gungahlin in particular. There was also a presentation by the ACT Planning and Land Authority's Director of Planning Services Kelvin Walsh on upcoming new suburbs.

I've previously spoken out on these issues, including on ABC's Stateline, and was invited to the launch to respond to these speakers. Following is the transcript of my responses.

Response to Australian Institute of Architects’ David Flannery:

There is much of the arguments put by the Australian Institute of Architects that is valid. There does need to be increased density in some areas closer to city centres—all of the city centres, not just Civic.

And there are certainly some areas of Gungahlin—altogether too many areas—that are truly cringe-worthy. There are places where I have to focus very intently on the road ahead of my while driving through them so as to avoid looking up in despair. But these areas are not our fault. They were created by politicians and planners and architects and builders both past and present. People bought them often because they were the only places available in a land-stock starved market.

But the AIA have mixed valid arguments up with an unfounded attack on the suburbs in which many of us choose to live.

As people who care about environmental issues, we get used to people from time to time calling us ‘greenies’. We don’t mind, our friends don’t mind, but the name callers are trying to invoke it as a derogative term, to somehow degrade the value or importance of those issues we care about.

So it is with the term ‘urban sprawl’. It’s used as a derogative to try to argue that suburbia is somehow evil.

But is it? Is the AIA’s call for more density based on solid evidence?

A 2005 study by Energy Australia found in fact that high-rise and medium density residential developments are far worse for overall greenhouse impacts than normal suburban housing.

Density debate - defending the backyard

The Australian Institute of Architects has hit out at the growth of suburbs around Canberra, calling for a halt to all greenfield development. They are targetting Gungahlin in particular, raising hackles here with claims of not enough density. Their arguments could be well enough made without slagging off at the most dense suburbs in Canberra (e.g. Palmerston 3000 people/hectare vs Canberra average 1000/hectare).

ABC's Stateline interviewed me on the AIA's attack:



There is further clarification of the agrument on the Gungahlin Community Council website.