Places Right place, right time Planning for more connected communities

After two years dominated by Covid-19, Australia’s international borders are opening, and we will once again become a magnet for migrants looking to call Victoria home.

Local demand for housing has been at record levels in Victoria’s greenfield areas.

With population growth expected to rebound strongly renewed growth will shine a light on the increased need for infrastructure that inevitably comes with building new communities and the associated price tag (see table 1 below to understand the dimensions of the challenge).

The Victorian Government is on the front foot driving economic recovery with infrastructure programs such as the Big Build and the Big Housing Build which are already creating jobs, economic growth and benefits for many Victorians.

More effective alignment between land use and infrastructure planning and delivery would further catalyse this public infrastructure, ensuring these benefits are further amplified. This means ensuring the infrastructure leads to wider benefits in the community including activating local areas and encouraging private investment that can lead to local jobs.

Rachel Dapiran, Victorian Planning Authority

Better integration of infrastructure provision will also drive innovation and achieve greater efficiencies. An example might be co-locating infrastructure and services on the same piece of land such as a school and a kindergarten.

Most importantly, it will lead to the delivery of more complete and connected communities.

In order to meet this challenge, the VPA has been looking at new models to help better coordinate land use and infrastructure planning. One of these is the Place Infrastructure Compact (PIC) pioneered by the Greater Sydney Commission.

This new model is currently being trialled in Greater Parramatta and Olympic Peninsula (GPOP) areas and more recently as a part of the Western Sydney City Deal.

Using a PIC as a new strategic planning tool will better align growth with committed and planned infrastructure and service delivery and promises to be a game changer.

In the Victorian context, it would ideally be trialled in an area with already committed infrastructure investment.

In the NSW example, GPOP areas will benefit substantially from future investment such as the Parramatta Light Rail and Sydney Metro West. It is expected to support substantial growth in this area in the future.

Place Infrastructure Compacts identify the most cost-effective sequencing for infrastructure delivery over set time periods and provide government with options to plan growth and investment. This establishes a blueprint as to how an area can develop to support growth in jobs and homes in the right place, and at the right time.

At its heart, a PIC is a place based approach to enable better integration of planning for growth with infrastructure investment that supports quality places that people want to live, work and invest in.

Beyond looking at models, the VPA as the state’s placed based planner is already driving better connections between land use planning and infrastructure delivery.

At the highest level, better utilising existing or committed infrastructure before building more is a key principle underpinning our work in established Melbourne and key regional cities. By planning for well-designed growth close to existing services, we can help defer or reduce the cost of extending networks.

Perhaps the best example of this is the Arden renewal precinct – a key transport precinct – where a new community of 35,000 workers and 15,000 homes is on track to be built atop a new metro station on the doorstep of Melbourne’s CBD.

Another example is the Lilydale Quarry Project, where the VPA has finalised a plan for the redevelopment of a former quarry. The site is surrounded by existing schools, shops and services, ready to service this new in Melbourne’s east.

The VPA has also pioneered other successful tools for delivering infrastructure for our fast-growing outer suburbs, the Growth Area Infrastructure Contribution (GAIC) Work in Kind (WIK) agreements.

GAIC is a charge on development that helps fund the provision of essential state infrastructure such as public transport, schools, or community facilities. GAIC WIK agreements allows those parties liable for GAIC (usually a landowner) to provide land and/ or capital infrastructure works in a growth area in lieu of a cash payment of GAIC. This can provide Government with earlier and cheaper access to land for infrastructure.

So far, the VPA has facilitated ten finalised agreements that will deliver $35m worth of land for infrastructure. Most of these agreements have provided land for Government schools, streamlining the provision of one of the most essential building blocks for new communities.

The VPA has also ramped up the quality and timeliness of information we provide to Government on the infrastructure implications of our PSPs. We work closely with all state infrastructure agencies to provide high level strategic advice about the infrastructure that will be required in growing areas as they develop at the five-year, ten year and final build out stages.

The challenge of integrating planning and infrastructure delivery is not new. Nor is it cheap or without complexity. But is it a challenge we must meet to ensure we deliver complete and connected communities where infrastructure is delivered in the right way, at the right time and in the right places.

Rachel Dapiran is the Executive Director of Infrastructure, Strategy and Planning at the Victorian Planning Authority and can be contacted at rachel.dapiran@vpa.vic.gov.au.