Page 2379 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 31 July 2018
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my colleague the Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Yvette Berry. This also lends weight to the focus I have just mentioned on developing an outcomes-based planning system for the ACT where people, and their desire to live a sustainable, healthy and connected existence, are at the heart of planning, rather than the rule book.
We then travelled to New Orleans to attend the American Planning Association national congress. Sessions covered a diverse range of topics from dynamic partnerships between cities and regions and a session exploring whether zoning should be simple—and, for the record, the answer is yes—to affordable housing plans in action, designing for density, and a very useful session on a planner-artist partnership for creative place making, to name but a few. The opportunity to network with some of the 5,700 delegates from 22 countries around the world was also invaluable.
I also attended a session about designing for safety, in my capacity as police and emergency services minister. This session, particularly as it related to designing public spaces for security, reinforced to me the importance of planning early for security requirements so that they can be integrated and not an afterthought. The best security interventions are those that people do not even notice, of course.
Of particular interest were the sessions on public participation and engagement in planning. We are already doing some great work in this space but it was great to hear that we are on the right track and, importantly, that we are not alone in the challenge to capture the missing voices in community engagement. These sessions were often practical and shared examples of innovative techniques and new approaches, which we are working to bring to communities in the broadest possible sense and into the planning space.
This is a challenge for our community, one which I hope we can address through the current conversation on housing choices, the refresh of the planning strategy and, of course, the review next year of the Territory Plan. We need to engage more people in planning to simplify the system so that it can focus on and support high quality planning outcomes to create a city for people. I look forward to continuing the conversation with the Canberra community as we plan for our growing city.
Another interesting learning from the congress was the use of innovative funding models to support city activation projects. For example, the city of Lynn near Boston showcased an example of revitalisation and use of crowdfunding to support a 10-day arts festival called Beyond Walls. The group raised $80,000 in around a month and was granted $50,000 by the city for the festival. This arts festival was a catalyst for significant change in the city. Before the festival, the city was not on the must-visit list of most Americans, but now the city is energetic and its residents are filled with pride for what they have achieved. This all started with a relatively simple city revitalisation intervention.
Following the congress we travelled to San Francisco, where we gave a presentation to the City and County of San Francisco Planning Department on the great work that
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