After almost a decade in power, the Victorian government has realised that Melbourne is experiencing a housing shortage—the solution: to allow even more urban sprawl.
With petrol prices increasing, with one of the highest per-capita greenhouse emissions per capita, with one of the most underdeveloped public transport system in the ‘developed’ world, and one of the lowest urban population density in the world,* how sustainable and/or responsible is this approach?
* London 5,100 p/km2, Berlin 3,750 p/km2, Sydney 2,100 p/km2, Melbourne 1,500 p/km2 ... followed by a long list of other car-dependent cities in the US. Source City Mayors (http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/largest-cities-density-125.html)
Suburban sprawl to solve Melbourne's housing crisisContinue reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/04/2178937.htm
ABC News March4, 2008
The Victorian Government is planning to open up tracks of land within Melbourne's urban growth boundary to ease the city's housing shortage.
Rezoning of land in 5 growth corridors, including Melton-Caroline Springs in the west; Casey Cardinia in the east; and Whittlesea in the north-east, will be fast tracked to provide enough space to build tens of thousands of new homes.
According to the government up to 1200 people are moving to Melbourne each week and while there is enough zoned land for the next 7 to 8 years, the new plan will provide land into 2018.
The Planning Minister Justin Madden says demand for land is greater than has been anticipated.
"We have experiences enormous growth in the last couple of years, in particular in the last 12 months, and the trends will continue and so all growth boundaries in Melbourne will be opened up," he said.
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