armstrong creek urban growth plan volume 1 - City of Greater Geelong

KEY CONCEPT: HIGH-QUALITY PUBLIC TRANSPORT
In the annals of history, many recognize that we have moved as far as we can
go on untamed wheels. A nation in gridlock from its auto-bred lifestyle, and
environment choking from its auto exhausts, a landscape sacked by its
highways, has distressed Americans so much that even this go-for-it nation
is posting “No Growth” signs on development from shore to shore. All these
dead ends mark a moment for larger considerations. The future of our
motorized culture is up for change. Jane Holtz Kay, Asphalt Nation (1998)
Trips to and from work represent a significant proportion of private car travel. It is
likely that, notwithstanding the proposed level of employment in the growth area,
many Armstrong Creek residents will commute outside the area to central or North
Geelong, or even Melbourne. Therefore, the UGP proposes to provide attractive
and high capacity links to these destinations via new high quality public transport
services, accessed via a potential new public transport interchange at Rossack
Drive and a high quality public transport link extending to the Major Activity Centre
at the heart of the growth area.
The UGP proposes that residential development densities are increased to a
minimum of 30 dwellings per hectare within 400 metres of Marshall Station and the
proposed public transport interchanges at Rossack Drive and the Major Activity
Centre—the equivalent of townhouse development. This optimises the number of
origins and destinations within a comfortable walk of these interchanges, in
accordance with the G21 Geelong Region Plan.
Approximately 50% of the 54,000 people who will make up the Armstrong Creek
community will live within 1.2 kilometres—a comfortable 15 minute walk—of one of
these interchanges. Further, the proposed local transit system will bring all homes
in the growth area within a maximum of approximately 25 minutes total travel time
from a interchange (including the walk to the local transit stop and a potential 10
minute wait).
A development of the scale of Armstrong Creek offers a rare opportunity to plan for
and around higher-quality public transport services. It will be important that the
new public transport infrastructure and services are established as early as
possible in the life of the Armstrong Creek development, to ‘capture’ residents
before they develop a car ‘habit’.
ARMSTRONG CREEK URBAN GROWTH PLAN / VOLUME 1 (ADOPTED 13 MAY 2008, AMENDED MAY 2010)
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