Planning problems Elements estate and the Wyndham area

This article is the first in a short series published in the Guardian last Monday on the future of Australian housing and talks mainly about planning deficiencies in new suburbs in the Wyndham area, chiefly the Elements estate in Truganina.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... -melbourne

It calls for some radical changes to Victoria's urban development strategy to encompass affordable living - not just affordable housing. Lack of transport and other services is having a detrimental impact on people's mental and physical health not to mention the cost to the environment of having heavily car-centric suburbs. The article quotes Michael Buxton, a Melbourne planning veteran and former professor at RMIT and Monash University, who says that the State has

“handed over the future design of outer Melbourne to the development industry” and set up “vast swathes of Melbourne to fail”.

Once again, although there are regulations governing development proposals there is no mechanism to enforce those regulations so what is on paper is not necessarily what you are going to get.

The article also references Sarah Bekessy, a professor of sustainability and urban planning at RMIT who is concerned about the disappearance of Melbourne's grasslands.

“We’re at the absolute end of our grassland, there’s less than 1% left. They can’t offset it any more, there’s nothing left,” Bekessy says. She’s referring to the Victorian government’s 2010 deal to establish a 15,000ha western grassland reserve by 2020 to offset 3,278ha of grasslands cleared for new residential developments. Last year, an audit found the government had acquired just 10% of the land.

Other points of concern are the sizes of houses relative to backyards and green space, the lack of attention to plot orientation and the ubiquitous black roofs and paved surfaces.

Well worth a read.