EVENT: Stephenson-Hepburn Oration 2013

The WAPC and planning academia agree furiously that we need increased density in our city. The planning profession agrees that we need to shift the balance from the suburban towards the urban in order to contain the economic and ecological hazards of sprawl in our rapidly growing city. Socially, we also need to provide the diversity of lifestyles demanded by our rapidly changing population. However very little work seems to have done into how we practically manage that transition so we can bring the community with us on the journey.

We need better planning tools to manage the interface issues and to conserve the history of our city. We need to work out how we co-mingle the cool small bars and nightclubs with residential living. We cannot do European city densities without European standard public transport. How do we compensate for the loss of trees and its impact on intensifying the heat island effect? How do we find and fund expansions of public open space to deal with a dramatic drop in private open space? We need strategic planners to get their hands dirty with a bit of statutory planning so the blue-sky visioning in master plans can be turned into a real life sustainable and bustling city that captures the heart and mind of our community.