Many organisations, individuals and groups have made submissions to the Review, and some (including SOS) were invited to discuss their issues with the committee in person. Our submission (click here) was a summary of our overall concerns and we are doing a follow-up submission after being encouraged to do so at our meeting with the committee in September.
While the 6-member committee are undoubtably experts in their field (mostly with extensive background in the development industry and/or the planning department), they clearly only represent one aspect of a multi-faceted debate.
Where are the independent experts in traffic and public transport, strategic planning, urban design, environmental sustainability, health and sociology? Where is the deliberative community consultation process so that feedback from informed residents can be incorporated into the new City Plan?
Are we planning for a complex city that can meet the sustainability challenges of peak oil, climate change, population and energy and water conservation; or are our planners just focussed on a simplistic numbers game of providing enough boxes for increasing numbers of people to "live" in?
However, since the Premier's department is actually preparing the overall strategic plan for Melbourne rather than just the planning minister (see Age article), perhaps there is still hope that a sustainable plan with vision will eventuate….
To find out more about "deliberative community consultation", click here