Page 307 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 December 2016
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houses were all in one street, surrounded by farming paddocks and not really much else. But, soon enough, more streets and more houses joined that first street. Before long Palmerston was built, as well as Nicholls, Ngunnawal and Amaroo. The town centre was established and more suburbs were planned and developed.
Having watched Gungahlin grow from a single street to a home for many, it is perhaps no surprise that, as an adult, I was drawn to a career in urban planning. That is what I was doing before I entered the Assembly. I was working as an urban planner in the federal public service. My professional focus has predominantly been on strategic development, but through my planning networks I have come to gain an insight and appreciation for the many varied facets of the planning task.
A little while ago a fellow planner and friend of mine recounted a conversation she had had while working in a local council. A resident had called wanting to know why the council insisted on setting back her development schedule. My friend was rather confused because there was no requirement on the development application to alter the timing of the development. After a few minutes of going around in circles it became apparent that the setback requirement being discussed referred to the structure being suitably set back from the property boundary. My friend explained this did not equate to a requirement to set back the building schedule.
Whenever I recount this story I get one of two responses. My fellow planners all start an in-depth and passionate discussion on setbacks being different to set backs, and everyone else scratches their head and says, “I don’t get it.” I appreciate that for a large number of people this story sums up their experience of the planning system and urban planning. But urban planning is more than just the rules we need to comply with if we want to build stuff. Planning is the blueprint for how we go about achieving the best city we possibly can. And achieving the best city we can is vital because our cities are the places that shelter us and provide us with employment, education and health care. They are where we meet with each other and where we come together as a community. Our city is our home.
For this reason we need to have the opportunity to interact with the plans that shape our home long before they turn into circular conversations on setbacks. When we bring people into the conversation early in the piece, take on board a wide range of views, find the points where we can agree and then work through any differences, we provide the conditions to make our city the best it can be for all people who call it home.
As well as being our home, our city is also our habitat, and it needs to sustain us. This means we need to build our city in a way that makes space for all our community and so that we all feel welcome and nurtured. While we may construct our habitat, our built environment and the natural environment surrounding us are not mutually exclusive. We and the cities we live in are still part of the wider planet, and we cannot ignore the reality that the way we build our habitat and the lifestyles we make for ourselves can have a detrimental effect on our surrounding nature. It is important we are both constantly mindful and diligent in minimising the impact of our built environment on our natural environment. After all, it is nature that provides us with food, water and clean air to keep us going. In short, we need to look after our environment, so that our environment can look after us.
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