Engaging communities

In 2012 I was fortunate enough to receive a Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship to research the successes and failures of community engagement in Vancouver, Seattle and Chicago.

At the time the NSW State Government was attempting to make once-in-a-generation changes to the Planning System. At that time their proposal called for community engagement to become a pillar of that new system, a solution to the perception that planning had historically failed to engage with the general public and that this lay at the heart of the obstructionist atmosphere in which many planning issues were perceived to be stuck.

Vancouver was initially positioned by the NSW State Government as a glowing exemplar of community engagement on urban planning issues inspiring myself and others to look a little closer. Initial research drew out some interesting inconsistencies and contradictions hence the journey that leads to this report.

Comparisons with other cities were deemed desirable in order to add value to the Vancouver experiences. Seattle and Chicago were chosen. American cities are the closest in urban form to Australian cities; central business districts with surrounding suburbs, post-war expansion through greenfield subdivision on the periphery and a more recent focus on densification in the inner suburbs as car use declines and gentrification occurs. They had both had success with city scale planning through strong community engagement processes, Seattle from the early 1990’s and Chicago from the late 1990’s when technology played a larger role.

As this report is completed in late 2015 the Greater Sydney Commission has been enacted and Lucy Turnbull appointed as Chair. Tasked with reviewing and implementing a Plan for Sydney, a structure requiring no re-election and armed with the powers to override Council planning the sustainability of Sydney rests in the hands of the 13 Commissioners; we wait with bated breath to see how they engage…

‍