Victorian planning minister Richard Wynne has appointed a team of 11 experts and community representatives to his ministerial advisory committee on the 450-hectare Fishermans Bend urban renewal project.
Public administration leader Meredith Sussex will chair the committee, which will also include City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, City of Port Phillip Mayor Amanda Stevens, and the following leading experts and community representatives:
- Lucinda Hartley – urban renewal, design and community engagement expert
- Michelle Howard – social infrastructure, strategic and statutory planning expert
- Eric Keys – integrated transport planning expert
- Rob McGauran – architecture, urban design and housing expert
- Tania Quick – business, local industry and land development expert
- Janet Bolitho – community representative and former mayor
- Helen Halliday – community representative, former councillor and Fishermans Bend Network member
- Phil Spender – community representative and local businessman
“Fishermans Bend is a big urban growth opportunity for Victoria. We’re making sure we get it right, to ensure Melbourne can accommodate a growing population and remain the envy of the world,” Mr Wynne said.
“I’ve chosen a committee which brings together the best in planning experts and community members, giving locals a direct voice in the process.”
The first stage of strategic planning is expected to be finished by the first quarter of 2016 and the recast precinct plans will be publicly available for comment in the second half of 2016.
Great to have this representative list but I do agree a Sustainability Champion would be particularly helpful particularly in ensuring greater integration across all disciplines. I see no reference to the need for infrastructure integration in energy, water, transport and built form. After working in this field for many years it is clear their are significant opportunities for greater efficiencies from business as usual and innovation. Maybe Minister Wynne could find a place for our sustainability champion here.
No dedicated sustainability expert? Whilst I genuinely wish we had reached redundancy due to inherent embedment of sustainability principles from the top down and within each discipline of every project, I think we’re still a long way off.
I hope Richard Wynne will direct his experts to consider best practice home and precinct energy use, design principles for sustainability in homes and commercial buildings etc. Nowhere in the list of experts is the term environmental sustainable design mentioned in their areas of expertise. We have the chance to build a world’s best, exemplary sustainable suburb at Fishermans Bend. It would be a waste of a wonderful opportunity to see yet another ordinary development rise on this site, and an indictment of Mr Wynne and his array of experts if they stuck with the old ways of doing things.