Time to embrace urban renewal

Time to embrace urban renewalIt’s time for Canberrans to embrace rather than fight urban renewal.That’s the message from Dan Stewart, the outgoing Coordinator General of Urban Renewal and the Deputy Director of Land Development for the ACT GovernmentSpeaking at a Property Council luncheon this week, Stewart told the audience that urban renewal was an essential part of the future of our city.”Canberra’s population is set to grow by 98 per cent in the next 45 years. In a city with fixed borders, there will come a time when greenfield development will no longer be an option,” he said.This represents a fundamental shift in thinking for the property industry, for governments and for Canberra residents too. But it’s also an opportunity.”We can expect to see new developments springing up across our borders – West Belconnen, Queanbeyan and Murrumbateman are just the start. But many people will want to live within the ACT, and urban renewal will help us to start building our city from the inside,” he said.Changing lifestyle preferences and an ageing population will also drive urban renewal. The proportion of Canberra citizens aged over 65 will grow from 11 per cent in 2012 to a whopping 22.5 per cent by 2060.”These older Canberrans will almost certainly want to remain in communities in which they grew up and raised their families,” Stewart said.”We’re going to need to work hard to provide retirement living solutions – and that won’t come from pushing retirement living developments further and further into greenfield suburbs.”Instead, Stewart predicts we’ll see multi-storey retirement living options emerge as downsizers become inner-city urbanites.Pointing to projects like City to the Lake and Capital City Metro, Stewart says these are “city changing projects” that will breathe new life into our CBD – but they need the community’s support.”There will always be those opposed to change. It’s an entirely legitimate position to take, but I’m not sure it’s a realistic one.” Instead, we need to move away from the NIMBY mentality and become a city of ‘YIMBYs’. And that means saying yes to urban renewal in our back yard.