[+] Moreton Bay’s Bid for Next-Gen City

What’s in a name? A lot, if you are one of the fastest-growing regional councils in Australia, it would seem. Moreton Bay Regional Council has launched a bid to put itself on the map as a three-hub polycentric city, with a plan to reclassify the region as a city currently under consideration by the Electoral Commission of Queensland. “We are a region but we are not regional,” Moreton Bay mayor Peter Flannery says. Moreton Bay is home to a population bigger than that of the nation’s capital and is the third largest council region in Australia. The evolution from region to city has received a ringing endorsement after winning the 2022 Local Government National Award for Regional Growth. It was driven by the council’s discussion paper and proposal to claim city status, which mayor Peter Flannery says will drive economic investment and boost liveability for its residents. ▲ Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery is leading the charge to have the region reclassified as a city under the Electoral Commission of Queensland. “City classification will also support the council’s ambitious economic development strategy to create 100,000 more local jobs and build a $40-billion economy,” Flannery says. “This (award) just reinforces all the hard work we’ve put into our proposal to officially be recognised as a city and to ensure Moreton Bay is front and centre when I go to Canberra to discuss federal funding for key projects that will make our region an even better place to live.” The three-hub city would focus on three major activity centres of Redcliffe, Caboolture and Petrie, and develop better connections between the devolved CBDs. It’s a city for a new age according to Archipelago’s founding director Peter Edwards who helped develop the polycentric city vision for the future of Moreton Bay. “In traditional CBD-centric cities it is carbon intensive, there’s amenity and employment infrastructure and all of the infrastructure is centrally organised,” Edwards said. “It’s a city of haves and have-nots. If you have money, you can live close to infrastructure and amenity and employment opportunities, but more people are increasingly pushed to the peripheries of the city. As the city grows, people are moved to the edge of the city where they’re either driven to a long commute or whatever employment they can find in the outer regions.” Edwards says the devolved polycentric city can level the playing field and create a greater amenity and liveable city for its inhabitants, provided that a level of inter-connectedness is fostered between those nodes. Moreton Bay already has a major infrastructure spine which can be added to strategically with duplications of the Bruce Highway and rapid rail. ▲ Moreton Bay will become a "loose-fit low-rise" polycentric city with three major activity hubs across the region. Edwards says the Moreton Bay City can be a new kind of city that is loose-fit, low-rise, subtropical in a lifestyle-oriented ecosystem of distinct interconnected centres. Mayor Peter Flannery says the region’s bid for city status would go to public consultation later this month with a potential identity change slated for March or April next year, which could be catalytic for the region’s evolution. “We need to make the right decisions now to both protect our way of living and provide further opportunities for our residents and businesses,” he says. “Becoming a city will help us to define what our city looks like before population growth happens to us—and we can avoid becoming another concrete jungle like the Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney CBDs. “We want to get on the front foot now so we can create a city we want, by building on the many urban centres we already have across the region and better connect them so that there is no central point. “The great part is that a city reclassification will come at very little cost to ratepayers, and we have no obligation or intention to go out and change signage until our current signs require replacing.” According to Archipelago’s Moreton Bay City report polycentric cities are made up of highly connected urban centres that can deliver significant social and enviornmental outcomes including distributed employment opportunties, a decrease in commute times, an increase in productivity, cheaper and cleaner infrastructure, and improved equality within the community. “Reduced travel demands are provided by more diverse housing located to distributed urban amenity,” the report said. “More people are able to live closer to local amenity and places of work and this coupled with improved telecommunication technology and mobility innovations reduces the traditional travel demand with great positive affect to urban form.” The report also claims polycentric cities are more nimble and agile cities that can adapt and evolve in the face of megatrends, unlike the “emerald city” of the 20th century where all roads lead to the prosperous CBD. The vision for Moreton Bay’s evolution is a bold one, but they are forging a path towards a next-generation city that provides fairer access to opportunity for its residents. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

[+] Moreton Bay’s Bid for Next-Gen City

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