Australia’s cities face significant social, economic and environmental challenges, driven by population growth and rapid urbanisation. The pressure to increase the availability of housing, including a move to a more compact urban form, will lead to greater levels of high-density and medium-density stock.
This research is attentive to the lack of medium-density dwellings and associated planning instruments to support and encourage increased medium-density living. It utilises a data-driven collaborative-planning approach, where Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are employed in conjunction with local planners and the community to deliver a collaborative solution. In this paper, we focus on a case study undertaken in the City of Blacktown, Western Sydney. Importantly, this research offers a conceptual framework for future participatory-planning processes, though the actual community participation has not yet occurred.In practical terms, this research has several aims, including: identifying attractive urban-regeneration locations, exploring innovative ways to attract landowners to participate in neighbourhood (precinct) urban-regeneration planning, enhancing community-engagement and stakeholder-collaboration structures, and supporting statutory and local-government processes.
This research contributes to the growing knowledge base in the following areas: identifying suitable areas for medium-density housing, highlighting the necessary governance processes required, establishing data-driven approaches and digital-planning tools that can inform and enhance existing planning processes, and seeking to develop and assist in the application of new planning processes in order to streamline medium-density development. This paper also discusses community-engagement approaches that can enable the co-design process, which complements the use of digital-planning tools.
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