Perth and Peel@3.5million
Core idea
Compact city with corridors/green wedges
Why it matters
Long-range growth with environment focus
Description
Perth and Peel@3.5million, issued by the Western Australian Planning Commission in 2018, is a long-range framework for accommodating a metropolitan population of 3.5 million. Its key moves are consolidation of growth within a defined urban footprint, intensification around rail corridors and activity centres, and protection of green wedges and environmentally sensitive lands, elaborated through sub-regional frameworks. It is paired with strategic environmental assessment of the region's bushland and water systems.
Significance
The framework marks Perth's attempt to break with one of the most dispersed, car-dependent growth patterns of any Australian city, continuing a lineage of metropolitan strategies from the 1955 Stephenson–Hepburn plan onward. Its coupling of urban consolidation targets with region-scale environmental assessment has been noted as an Australian innovation. Debate persists over whether infill targets are achievable against entrenched greenfield development interests.
What shaped it
- The green belt (1898 concept / 1938 law)
- The compact city (1973-1990s)
- Transit-oriented development (TOD) (1993)
- SDG 11 — Sustainable Cities (2015)
Sources
- https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/McGowan%20Labor%20Government/Perth-and-Peel-at
- https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/perth-and-peel-35-million-frameworks