08.10.2018Committee for Melbourne calls for ‘One Melbourne’ plan to future-proof our city
Melbourne is an attractive city where people want to live, visit and do business. With the population reaching five million last month ahead of all predictions, our growth could be threatening our prosperity and liveability.
Committee for Melbourne is calling for the incoming government to grasp the opportunity to take a bold, integrated approach to the way we plan, manage and fund our city’s growth.
In 2010 – when Melbourne’s population counted four million people – Committee for Melbourne released a report series called ‘Melbourne Beyond 5 Million’ due to concerns about the emerging challenges facing our growing city and the short-term fragmented partisan solutions being applied.
“Back in 2010, Committee for Melbourne feared that accelerated population growth could lead to a polarised city, congestion, urban sprawl, and social and living affordability issues. The fears mooted then are now widely voiced by the community”, said Committee for Melbourne CEO Martine Letts.
“After taking 168 years to reach four million people, who could have forecast another million in ten years?”
“While much has been done in the past eight years to plan for a bigger city and to invest in infrastructure, we are not keeping up. Marvellous Melbourne is at a tipping point”.
“We are fast becoming an economically polarised city, a place of haves and have nots, driven by our geographical size, housing options, access to transport, utilities, services and amenities”.
“Facing elections both state and federal, we are calling for a One Melbourne paradigm to guide our future”.
For a ‘One Melbourne’ paradigm to be successful we must:
• Introduce Metropolitan-wide management such as a Greater Melbourne Commission, empowered to act in the interests of Greater Melbourne
• Develop a 50-year public transport blueprint that integrates transport with land use, economic planning and technology
• Have sustained investment in infrastructure so industry can gear up for a major sustained pipeline of projects
• Ensure an equitable energy future for residents, business and industry, providing affordable, reliable, dispatchable and environmentally responsible power
• Deliver affordable living solutions that go beyond affordable housing
• Create a meaningful polycentric city, with Melbourne as the global centre of excellence in liveable density, with solutions in medium density development that retain the city’s soul, while accommodating major growth.
“Melburnians have a unique opportunity to shape the city’s future by pressing government to take a ‘One Melbourne’ approach to future-proof our city”, said Ms Letts.
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