Dr Ed Wensing, expert urban planner featured in our new documentary On the Edge, a film by local film maker Trent Houssenloge of Cowboy Hat Films, has written an insightful article outlining the limits to Canberra’s urban growth and why we must prevent further urban sprawl development in the Western Edge. You can read the full article here.
The paper discusses the five physical limits to Canberra’s longer-term urban growth, both outwards and upwards:
- The ACT/NSW Border
- The Metropolitan Transport Task
- The Natural Topography
- Water Supply
- Sewage and Wastewater Treatment
“The issue for Canberra is not only about defining an outer urban boundary, but also about reaching agreement on which areas within the ACT must be safeguarded from urban development, why they must be safeguarded, and applying the appropriate legislative and policy mechanisms to ensure they remain protected indefinitely,” writes Dr Wensing.
“What is required is a sound understanding of the city’s physical and natural limits and a well-thought-out long-term strategic plan. We need to weigh up the different options and their relative costs and benefits, not only economically, but also environmentally, socially and culturally. Otherwise, we are likely to continue making the wrong decisions.”
Click here to read the full article.
About the Author
Dr Ed Wensing began his planning career by participating in the ‘Gungahlin Think-In’ in the early 1970s before joining the former National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) in 1972. Ed worked his way up the ranks of the NCDC to become a senior town planner before furthering his career in the Commonwealth in housing and urban policy roles before becoming PIA’s inaugural National Policy Director in the mid-1990s. Ed has also had the privilege of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in all jurisdictions in Australia over the last 30 years on the complex interactions between their unique connections to and responsibilities for Country under their traditional laws and customs and the state’s land administration and land planning and management systems.
Ed is a Life Member of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is currently Associate and Special Adviser with SGS Economics and Planning, a Research Fellow at the City Future Research Centre at UNSW and a Sessional Lecturer in the School of the Built Environment at UNSW.
The views expressed in this paper are his own.