Plan Melbourne

Project Overview

Plan Melbourne is the regional plan for Melbourne and the 30 surrounding municipalities, created by the State of Victoria. One of the plan’s key ‘directions’ is creating “inclusive, vibrant and healthy neighbourhoods” (State of Victoria, 2017, p. 96) through the use of the 20-minute neighbourhood concept. Neighbourhoods are structured around a set of ‘hallmarks’, including safe connections for pedestrians and cyclists, daily services and destinations, access to public transit, high-quality public realm, and sufficient population to support services and transport. Similar to Moreno’s (2019) six essential functions, each 20-minute neighbourhood provides for the needs of local residents through 17 functions, as shown in Figure 14. These 17 functions are planned to be colocated at Neighbourhood Activity Centres (NACs). The overall regional plan is formed around a framework of activity centres, with the central business district as the largest,

followed by metropolitan, major, and neighbourhood as the smallest. The role of NACs Living Locally 20 Minute Neighbourhood Pilot Program is to provide daily services and amenities within 20-minutes (measured as 800m or a Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 10-minute walk in each direction). The overall activity centre mapping does not specify Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 is a long-term plan to locations for NACs, but they are typicalaccommodate Melbourne’s future growth. The plan is guided by the principle of 20-minute neighbourhoods. ly located around village shopping areas, commercial plazas and transit stations. In The 20-minute neighbourhood is all about ‘living locally’—giving people the ability to meet most of their addition to services and amenities, NACs daily needs within a 20-minute walk from home, with are also targeted for housing intensification, access to safe cycling and local public transport options. with minimum densities of 25 dwellings per Research shows that 20 minutes is the maximum hectare needed to support services and create affordable housing in proximity to these time people are willing to walk to access daily needs locally. This represents an 800m walk from home to a destination, and back again. services (State of Victoria, 2017). The network of NACs and larger activity centres is con-20-Minute Neighbourhood Pilot Program nected via transit. This increases the potential catchment around centres and creates a In January 2018, the Minister for Planning launched the 20-Minute Neighbourhood Pilot Program to test the broader network of services and amenities practical delivery of 20-minute neighbourhoods. across the region.The program is being delivered in two stages: ‚ Stage 1 Existing Neighbourhoods To test the implementation of the 20-minute ‚ Stage 2 Greenfield Neighbourhoods city concept, three pilot projects were un-The projects are being delivered in partnership with the dertaken in suburban municipalities in 2018 Victorian Planning Authority, local government, Victoria (State of Victoria, 2019d, 2019c, 2019a). The Walks, Resilient Melbourne and the Heart Foundation.

Stage 1 Existing neighbourhoods Croydon South Led by Maroondah City Council’s Council and Community Planning team, the project focused on developing a neighbourhood plan to manage growth and liveability. Key opportunities for Croydon South included: ‚ streetscape improvements ‚ enhancing connections to and amenity of Tarralla Creek ‚ exploring housing diversity options. Strathmore Led by Moonee Valley City Council, the project focused on delivering a high-quality public realm and open space, supporting council’s strategic plan MV2040. Key opportunities for Strathmore include: ‚ improving pedestrian safety and access ‚ providing bicycle lanes connecting to the activity centre ‚ support housing diversity. Sunshine West Led by Brimbank City Council’s Economic Development division, the project focused on developing business strategies to support a thriving local economy. Key opportunities for Sunshine West include: ‚ encouraging ‘pop up’ shops and street trading ‚ exploring streetscape improvements ‚ supporting public art installations and ‘creative spaces.’

Next steps The Victorian Government will work with the councils to turn the neighbourhood opportunities into a reality. Each council is exploring strategies to scale up the approach to other neighbourhoods and are developing tools to support broader implementation.

Figure 14: 17 features of Melbourne’s 20-Minute Neighbourhoods (State of Victoria, 2017)

State government recognized the disparity between the central and outer municipalities, observing that Melbourne contained two cities: a well-serviced but unaffordable centre, and affordable but poorly serviced suburbs (State of Victoria, 2017). Therefore, the pilot projects focused on transitioning suburban neighbourhoods to a more walkable urban form. The initiatives tested included smallscale interventions to improve non-car access (such as temporary traffic calming and pop-up parks) and events to break down barriers and encourage social interaction between residents and local businesses (see Fig. 15). All three pilot projects recognized the importance of more active transportation infrastructure to calm traffic and remove barriers to walking and cycling, as well as encouraging a sense of place within NACs through urban design and branding. The pilot projects were also key sources of data capture and public consultation for the municipalities and state government. Each included analyses of the local demographics, movement patterns, healthy activities, place types, vegetation, and development patterns. Community partnerships were also formed with businesses, community groups, and local residents. Finally, extensive public engagement was undertaken through community events, workshops, online platforms, and street interviews. The three pilot projects provided governments with essential data to develop methods and best practices for implementing 20-minute neighbourhoods across the Melbourne region.

Strathmore Street Party Figure 15: A community event in Strathmore promotes local businesses and community engagement (State of Victoria, 2019c)

Mobility Justice Analysis

Distributive The Neighbourhood Activity Centre concept and concentration of services improves distributive justice by making it easier to access multiple primary goods at once and reducing the overall number of trips needed. However, not all areas within Melbourne are in proximity to an NAC and not all existing NACs have access to a rapid or frequent transit service (Pozoukidou & Chatziyiannaki, 2021). The plan and pilot programs do address the immediate area by recommending active transportation investments to reduce the barriers to walking and increase cycling infrastructure, but, without broader connections, the NACs could end up as islands of walkability. The plan also does not address the distribution of employment within the city. Instead, it relies on improving vehicle and transit access to the central business district and employment clusters to reduce travel times.

To compare service levels across the region, the state is planning to develop a neighbourhood index that would measure activity centres, schools, public transport, housing density and diversity, walkability and tree cover (State of Victoria, 2019b). This would be used in detailed plan development and monitoring and could be an effective tool in ensuring the least advantaged areas are receiving appropriate resources. Further to this point, the recognition of the difference between centre and suburbs and the use of pilot programs are a good step towards addressing the disparity. However, all three pilot programs took place in ‘middle suburbs’, which are typically denser and more walkable than the newer outer suburbs (Pozoukidou & Chatziyiannaki, 2021). To this end, the plan is not targeting the areas that are in greatest need first, due to the car-centric form and higher concentrations of poverty and immigrants (Whitzman et al., 2013), which falls short of the goal of distributive justice.

Representative The 20-Minute City portion of Plan Melbourne was well received during the plan’s development (Hansen, 2020). The results of surveys done as part of the pilot projects (State of Victoria, 2019a, 2019c, 2019d) and by Whitzman et al. (2013) also reflected the NAC functions, with residents wanting greater access to employment, arts and culture, transit, education, and affordable housing. The pilot projects achieved a high level of citizen engagement in their respective neighbourhoods by using a variety of methods to target different groups and by focusing on community partnerships. The plan and pilot projects also included a broad range of social initiatives that complement the physical improvements, such as: events and awareness campaigns targeting local businesses at the NACs and programs to remove barriers for non-profit community service providers (State of Victoria, 2019b).

Though the plan takes into consideration that life in the suburbs is difficult without a car, there is still a concern that the needs of outer suburban residents are not taken into account during the plan’s implementation (Whitzman et al., 2013). Funding for infrastructure is focused on road investments, such as a city centre highway tunnel, and policies to protect certain neighbourhoods from densification still exist. These initiatives ignore the local needs of suburban residents

or those without cars and instead focus on facilitating longer trips to more distant destinations.

Procedural The substantial community partnerships in the three pilot programs led to many of the initiatives being designed and implemented by local groups, including businesses, a community walking group, residents within 800m, park groups, a neighbourhood watch, and a rotary club. However, one survey in Croydon South found that “residents felt they had little influence on decision making” (State of Victoria, 2019a, p. 9) with only 55% feeling that were able to make a difference in the community. This may be related to several factors. Individuals not part of a community group that was engaged in a pilot project may feel left out, while the selection of groups may be biased towards those that already hold power and influence within the community. It may also be connected to a broader disconnect between state level policy and local municipalities (Whitzman et al., 2013). The state may have good intentions in the development of policy, but the local council may lack the resources and political will to implement the policy or include the public in decision making. Because of this, it is important to include policies and resources that allow for a greater level of public control over future projects.

Key Findings Colocation of services and amenities at community hubs improves access and reduces needed trips, but it is important to ensure that everyone has access to a nearby hub

Social events are a complementary tool in addition to infrastructure and policy and are essential to remove the psychological barriers to active transportation

Community engagement in various forms is required to identify needs, but must be more than just data collection