Do our cities need co-ordinating bodies

Do our cities need co-ordinating bodies?One body coordinating planning for a big city like Sydney makes sense, but is the Greater Sydney Commission model transferrable to other markets? Andrew Fletcher, NSW regional director at the Property Council, thinks so.The Greater Sydney Commission was created as an independent statutory body by the NSW Government in January this year, partly as a response to the often-repeated criticism that Sydney’s then-43 local councils were too fragmented for proper whole-of-city land use planning. The Commission has a mandate to give government big ideas, or “game changers” as the Commission’s Chief Executive Sarah Hill has said, to ensure that development, transport and housing plans deliver good growth.Jane Fitzgerald, the Property Council’s executive director in NSW, says industry had been calling for a Greater Sydney Commission for many years.”The NSW Division pushed for the creation of an agency to take overarching responsibility for Sydney’s long term growth, with the muscle and freedom to stay focussed on delivering the jobs, housing and infrastructure essential for prosperity,” she says.Fitzgerald says industry is eagerly awaiting the release of six draft District Plans for consultation which the Commission is due to deliver to meet its first major milestone in November.Meanwhile, in Melbourne, the Victorian Planning Authority is responsible for reshaping strategically-important precincts to better direct population and employment growth.”The GSC has a broader strategic agenda than the VPA, with responsibility for planning across multiple suburbs and communities,” explains Asher Judah, deputy executive director of the Property Council in Victoria.”Both models have strengths and weaknesses – and we will know which is superior in four years’ time after they have had the opportunity to prove their effectiveness.” The Hunter region is facing the similar challenges to those felt in Sydney and Melbourne, says Fletcher, including population growth coupled with a housing shortfall of 30,000 homes within the next decade.”A Hunter Commission – modelled on the Greater Sydney Commission – with authority to lead the delivery of jobs, housing, services and infrastructure, as well as the statutory powers to remove bureaucratic hurdles, is what the Hunter needs and deserves,” he says.”Without that, regional planning will remain the ‘black hole’ of policy when it comes to managing the Hunter’s growth and infrastructure needs.”The region simply can’t afford another ten years of committees made up of Council officers and representatives of state agencies, under-performing and lacking any delegated powers.”