Catherine Carter |
Friday, 31 July 2009 12:01 AM |
Add Comment
Coping with an increasing population means providing extra housing and extra infrastructure as well as tackling the increased complications of getting people from their homes to their jobs, schools, community services and entertainment areas.
Generally this is easier and can be less of a strain on the environment if housing is provided in areas already supplied with infrastructure and located close to workplaces and entertainment precincts. For Canberra, looking forward, this means increasing infill development and urban density.
The Property Council has for a number of years supported such development for these well-established reasons. But support of infill development does not mean that suburban development – using greenfields, or previously unused land for residential sites – should be stopped or is somehow wrong. And it certainly doesn't mean, as some of the debaters on the subject over the last week have said, that all greenfields development should be discouraged by pricing it out of contention.
There is an assumption that greenfields development is environmentally unsound simply because it isn't in the urban heart. This assumption is wrong.
Certainly greenfields development has to be carefully carried out to maximise its environmental credentials, to meet contemporary requirements and community expectations.
If you want to build from scratch now, you have to meet a series of requirements for environmentally sustainable development. Those requirements did not exist when much of the existing urban development in Canberra was built. That means that existing buildings can require extensive green refits to match the energy-saving, pollution-reducing features of much of the new housing available.
That, in turn raises its price. And Canberra already has a housing affordability problem. Do we really want to exacerbate it by reducing opportunities for young families to find affordable homes in the suburbs?
Many believe there is a way for us to live in an environmentally and economically responsible manner without totally abdicating our right to a choice of lifestyle.
Let us by all means debate the issue, but let's also consider all the implications and their long-term effects before rushing to reduce Canberrans' choices.
Catherine Carter |
Friday, 31 July 2009 12:01 AM |
Add Comment
