A Reality Check on Tasmania

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A Reality Check on Tasmanias Urban Planning
Liveability Slide Show TAS Award of Excellence
2004 National Merit Award 2005
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Or how to move from hard-edge to
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liveability
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Calling the Tasmanian public, planners and
decision makers
to urgently establish urban planning for
liveability, sustainability and health as their
priority!
Its being done successfully, world wide.
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There are proven planning practices that have
remedied the social and health disasters created
by hard-edge planning through

• applying water sensitive urban design (WSUD)
  principles
• calming traffic
• greening and tree-lining streets and roads
• increasing pedestrian mobility and health
• giving young and old a new sense of place
• activating entrepreneurial energy
• making towns viable, liveable and beautiful

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Urban planning for public health and activity is
the same as urban planning for revitalisation and
liveability.
And it looks like this.
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and this
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and this
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and this
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or this
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or this
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or perhaps this
or perhaps this
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What has Tasmania been doing?

• It has
• paid for countless sustainability and spatial
  development studies and put them into bottom
  drawers
• not kept up with mainland States standards
• honed its skills in peddling excuses
• chosen PR spin over reality
• nipped sustainability planners in the bud
• resisted change and preserved a 1950-60s
  hard-edge philosophy
• Too harsh? Unfortunately not.

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The lack of overall liveability planning in towns
and suburbs tells the sorry tale.
The real social, psychological and economic state
is evident throughout Tasmania.
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Tasmanian reality check
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Tasmanian reality check
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Tasmanian reality check
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Tasmanian reality check
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Tasmanian reality check
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Tasmanian reality check
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Etc, etc, etc, across Tasmania
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Tasmanias chosen solutions
Solution Nr 1 PR spin
And this is North Hobarts refurbished,
self-declared Lygon St (HCC phone blurb)
This is Melbournes famous, vital Lygon St
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Tasmanias chosen solutions
Solution Nr 2 Isolated highlights, but no
comprehensive policies
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Tasmanias chosen solutions
Solution Nr 3 Continue to reject WHOs Healthy
City criteria.
Blatant disregard of Tasmanias world famous
ozone hole. No dealing with climate change.
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Tasmanias chosen solutions
Solution Nr 4 Embarrassing stand-alone measures
Anti-child, anti-pedestrian streets!
Healthier, safer with trees?
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Tasmanias chosen solutions
Solution Nr 5 Engineering and planning compromise
better-than nothing
Refusal to accept healthy pedestrian streets as
priority Mid street planting ignores
pedestrians.
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Tasmanias chosen solutions
Solution Nr 6 Sell off public land, contrary to
hard earned world wisdom
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How others achieve liveability
They apply 8 essential planning tools

1. Ongoing public interaction regarding principles
   and benefits of liveability
2. Pedestrian friendly priorities
3. Work towards 20-40 canopy cover
4. Green traffic calming bike lanes
5. Shaded parking and public seating
6. Street sharing principle
7. Socio-economic mixed use (commercial
   residential)
8. Leafy links between centres and peripheries

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How others achieve liveability

• reduces noise
• protects pedestrians
• reduces road rage
• improves driving skills
• creates shade and interest
• drivers accept speed reduction

green traffic calming
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How others achieve liveability
Melbourne
Melbourne
Trees and traffic
Same country, same century, different policy
Hobart
Melbourne
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How others achieve liveability
Hamburg
Shaded car parking

• reduces aggression
• cares for the car
• multifunctional space
• reduces urban heat
• adds to beauty and civic pride

Benalla VIC
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How others achieve liveability
Using new water sensitive urban design
technologies (WSUD)
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Antiquated Tasmanian planning
Before
A typical expensive country town refurbishment
practice repeated over and over throughout
Tasmania
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Antiquated Tasmanian planning
After
Many, many dollars later
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Trees, bike lanes and vegetation buffers remain
photo montage dreams (very basic PhotoStudio
artwork)
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Pro-vandalism planting philosophy Nr 1
2 scraggle trees battling on, inviting vandalism
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Pro-vandalism planting philosophy Nr 2
Replacement by 2 slightly bigger scraggle treelets
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Pro-vandalism planting philosophy Nr 3
Blame the vandals or the planners?
Result of a 5 year effort All gone!
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Surprise!
Same intersection, opposite side, different
planning
Proper trees Right trunk heights, number,
spacing, types gt liveability!
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If your councillors, Council staff, local
Government Departments and MPs are ignoring UN
Habitat Local Agenda 21 (to which they probably
have subscribed) they need an election fright to
jolt them into making proper decisions in spatial
development and urban liveability.
Preparing the ground for Local Agenda 21
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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Social benefits

• more tolerance
• wellbeing and belonging
• less stress, less violence
• more pedestrian friendliness
• stimulates walking and communication

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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Health and wellbeing
Vital to community health

• Street trees
• reduce pollution, noise and green house gases
• provide summer shade, winter sun
• encourage natural exercise
• promote faster patient recovery
• stimulate mental vitality, reduce boredom
• make youth feel better, behave better
• activate independence, confidence in children and
  aged.

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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Benefits for the young

• Youth co-own comfortable public space
• Trees are society building and family friendly
• Aesthetic arena for child development
• More generational interaction
• Positive nature experience

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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Economic benefits

• Tree the streets and people and businesses will
  follow Walkable communities Inc.
• 74 prefer to shop and spend more time where
  car parks and streets are treed
• Shoppers spend 12 more
• Treed streets increase worker productivity,
  reduce absenteeism
• Rental stability is a direct result of tree
  cover
• 10-20 increase in commercial property values

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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Tourism benefits

• - More exploring on foot
• - Longer stay through retention of interest
• Street trees now international tourism
  benchmarks
• No need for PR spin

Ross
Quality and extent of street trees create first
impression
Venice
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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Green traffic calming and bike lanes

• - safer, calmer, better driving gt less accidents
• mixed mobility in town centres
• smarter public transport systems
• fine tuned traffic control technologies
• roads become attractive despite traffic

Mixed mobility shared streets pedestrians,
skaters, bikes, motorbikes, cars, prams, wheel
chairs etc. share the same space.
This Swiss towns pop 1/2 of Hobart. Activity,
fitness, bikes the norm.
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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Population planning
Global competition for new residents is
increasing

• Urban greening is decisive in population
  policies,
• new residents desire attractive towns,
• they expect vitality, not depression,
• vitality retains newcomers cranks up economy,
• positive impact on business and tax base.

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Do it right, and ALL benefit
Environmental benefits

• Street trees, traffic calming and urban greening
  are crucial for
• sensitive storm water management
• water conservation,
• natural urban cooling,
• reduction of green house gases, dust, noise,
  wind, UV
• increased overall appreciation of nature.

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Urgency!

• A commitment to liveability will have Tasmania
  turned around, healthier, safer and looking
  better within 4-5 years.
• It is all possible and it is cheaper than you
  think,
• the benefits will far outweigh the costs,
• but it MUST be done properly.

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Plan before you plant!
New street tree trunks should look like this, ...
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... not like this!
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Otherwise, this is likely to happen! ...
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Again this is what young street tree trunks and
avenue spacings should look like and dont take
NO for an answer!
1015m! Not more!
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Seville
Making large concreted area liveable
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Melbourne
Linking open space between buildings
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Melbourne
Planting up a car park roof top
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Sestri Levante
Planting for summer shade and social interaction
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Sydney
Enhancing (historic) buildings with trees
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Melbourne
Making a suburb walkable and leafy not only
for the rich.
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Melbourne
Humanising an arterial road
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Zurich
Tree lining a street
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Examples of effective street tree planning and
planting
Auckland Harbour
Italy
Using trees in working harbours
Hobart
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Avoiding major mistakes
Dont treat urban trees as embellishments. They
are central planning tools. Dont rely on
gardeners taste with street trees different
criteria apply for best practice street tree
planting. Dont treat streetscaping as
prettying up for tourists. Dont spend up on
fancy pavers instead of street trees. Dont
plant allergy trees (birch is worst). Dont
plant male clones, trying to avoid litter
(seeds etc).
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Avoiding major mistakes
Dont plant evergreens as street trees. Use
deciduous gt dappled summer shade, winter sun
(good for people). Dont even dream of planting
any street tree under 2.5 meters of clean trunk
height. (Engage or create nurseries for grow-on
contracts). Dont plant street trees further
than 7-15 metres apart (or loose social
benefits, civic pride and increase
vandalism). Dont plant for the future plant
mature trees for the present generations health
and wealth, and the future will be ok.
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Successful planning tools
www.urban-advantage.com Excellent animated
before after picture show http//www.wsud.or
g/wsud.htm Australian Water Sensitive Urban
Design links www.americanforests.org/graytogreen/
American Forests (a prime resource used in
Australia) www.who.dk/healthy-cities World
Health Organisation, Healthy Cities http//cufr.
ucdavis.edu/default.asp Center for Urban Forest
Research (US Dept. of Agriculture) www.herl.uiuc
.edu Green Streets, Not Mean Streets
(Crime) www.rosevilleelectric.orgPower Utility
tree planting program for energy
conservation Google Street tree/urban greening
policies of all AUS States

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In a nutshell
It's time to stop looking at urban trees as
ornaments and understand them for what they are
powerful agents of social, economic and
environmental regeneration, and vital
contributors to the health and well-being of
cities and its citizens.
(Blueprint for Trees Campaign, UK) A modern
societys health and wealth is indicated not by
its buildings, but whether the streets and roads
are greened and treed, multifunctional,
environmental and civic oriented.
(21th Century Anonymous)
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Researched and presented by Lesley
Brenner-Ledder Peter Brenner 18B St. Georges
Tce Battery Point 7004 Phone [phone] E-mail
brenner_at_netspace.net.au