Look 50 Years Ahead – Or More
May 2013
It’s time to set a visionary plan for Melbourne
People with a vision can achieve great things, and a strong and enduring vision is a must for any world-leading city.
To get anywhere in this world, you must have a destination, and in order to arrive at your destination, you must have some sort of plan that outlines how you are going to get there. We don’t get in our cars and think: “I know my destination is somewhere to the North, so I will just head that way and hope I get there.” For most of us, we consult a GPS, Melway’s or iPhone to determine a suitable path to our destination before we set out. As an absolute minimum, we at least expect some signposts along the way to let us know we are heading in the right direction.
But for something as important as our city, we seem to be content to just allow our final destination to be determined as we go along, making short-term decisions without the benefit of an aspirational end point for reference; and hope that along the way we don’t make seriously flawed decisions that may hinder our progress in the future.
This just doesn’t make sense. No city, not even Melbourne – the “world’s most liveable city” – can afford the luxury of making up its future as it goes along.
Vision is a critical component of any city’s future. Even COAG – the Coalition of Australian Governments – believes that although statutory frameworks and provisions (the very lifeblood of government process), can provide some continuity, they “do not replace the foundational importance of a strategic, integrated, long-term vision for the city” for our future. We need to think about what Melbourne could, and should be, and we need to be looking at least 50 years into the future.
If you are thinking that a 50 year horizon is too far or too hard to plan for, take into consideration the fact that the urban train system that serves Melbourne today has in reality changed very little since it was built in the 1880s, some 130 years ago.
The roads, bridges, railways, airports, shipping ports, office blocks, houses and shopping malls we build now will still be serving us well into the next century. If you think of it this way, then a 50 year plan is, if anything, not visionary enough.
Defining a vision for a city is by no means an easy task – but it’s not impossible either. Yes, it does take some courage, conviction and leadership, but there are a growing number of cities that have made the bold move to make a definitive statement regarding their future aspirations.
The London vision is to “excel among global cities – expanding opportunities for all its people and enterprises, achieving the highest environmental standards and quality of life and leading the world in its approach to tackling the urban challenges of the 21st century, particularly that of climate change”.
Vancouver, the city that momentarily knocked Melbourne from its perch as the world’s most liveable city has a vision to have “The highest quality of life embracing cultural vitality, economic prosperity, social justice and compassion, all nurtured in and by a beautiful and healthy natural environment. Achieved by an unshakeable commitment to the well-being of current and future generations and the health of our planet, in everything we do”.
Even Sydney, in a recently released Draft Metropolitan Plan stated its vision is to be “a strong global city, a liveable local city”. Surely if Sydney has a vision and a plan, Melbourne can, and indeed must, have one too.
We need a vision that encapsulates Melbourne’s character and our aspirations for the future if we are to establish our city as one of the commercial, industrial, intellectual and cultural capitals of the world.
Our vision should be highly distinctive to Melbourne; it needs to define our role in Australia and the world. It must be for the people, and by the people, so that it has a lifespan beyond changes of government and the uncertain terrain of the political landscape.
Our vision must set a direction for the future and express what we would like to achieve. Our vision needs to identify our major infrastructure builds of the future – shipping ports, airports, bridges, hospitals, schools, housing developments, the things that define us spatially.
We also need a visionary plan that outlines our future energy and water needs, our health needs, our education needs, and our economic strengths.
Our vision needs to be optimistic, affirming and enhance the best of our attributes, past and existing, and aspire to those we hope to have.
We must define and shape our city of the future now so that we can set for ourselves a strong direction with which to drive forward, not just make a vague prediction of where we may end up if we meander along unchartered territory, changing direction as we go.
Kate Roffey is CEO, Committee for Melbourne.
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