CockburnCoast - Western Australian Planning Commission

CockburnCoast
4.5 From rhetoric to reality
The four main factors that informed the development of the district
structure plan were:
• Regional framework (as outlined in the summary)
• responding to the project challenges (as outlined in
section 4.3);
• the formation and input of the Cockburn coast reference
group; and
• the development of the sustainability framework.
This section considers the project approach and some of the
mechanisms and strategies which influenced the evolution of the
plan.
Since the release of the Western Australia State Sustainability
Strategy in September 2003, the Government has encouraged a
shift from seeing planning simply as a regulatory system to thinking
of it as a positive way to shape the places and communities in which
we live, through sustainable development. It strengthened the
leadership role of the community, businesses, State government
agencies and local government as place shapers and set out new
ideas and opportunities for interconnected social, economic and
environmental outcomes.
At the start of the project, the Cockburn coast steering committee
committed to promoting the Network City policy through
sustainability initiatives in both land and built form development,
resource efficiency and to encourage lifestyle opportunities that are
integrated into the surrounding community and natural environment.
The steering committee established four sustainability themes as a
cornerstone of the project:
• to encourage best practice design, technologies and
concepts;
The sustainability framework is essentially a matrix with the following
basic elements:
• sustainability principles;
• development strategies; and
• measurement tools and indicators.
The sustainability framework is discussed in more detail in Chapter 8.
4.6 Sustainability context
Sustainable planning outcomes result from collaboration,
understanding the regional context, developing an acute sense of
the special qualities of the place and a balanced approach to
decision-making. Sustainable development acknowledges the
inter-relatedness of our many actions - that land use impacts on
transportation options which impact on people's health, which
impacts on job performance, and so on. Sustainable development
looks for solutions that solve targeted problems without
exacerbating or creating other problems.
For Cockburn coast the need to consider global issues, to reflect
State Government policy and to appreciate and respond to the
regional framework and local conditions has been fundamental to
the structure planning process (see Figure 4.1).
Achieving sustainable development demands a real partnership
with individuals and across communities, businesses, organisations
and other government agencies. The Cockburn coast plan provides
a focus for bringing people together, to see what can collectively be
achieved in developing a sustainability agenda.
• to create diversity in uses, housing, people and
experiences;
• to foster innovation in the planning of new
communities; and
• to generate an integrated, connected, efficient and
exciting new urban area that extends on the
existing natural assets of the location.
4.6.1 Developing the sustainability
framework
The purpose of the sustainability framework in the first
instance was to enable comparison of various
structure plan options developed by the project team
and reference group. As the plan progresses to the
implementation stage, it is expected that the framework
will be used to monitor the implementation of the regional
framework and ensure that the project meets its
sustainability objectives.
Figure 4.1: Sustainability context
Global
State
Cockburn
coast
Influences:
Sustainable development
Climate change
Global warming
Diminishing resources
Policy framework:
State Sustainability Strategy
State Planning Strategy
Directions 2031
WAPC/EPA policies
Transit oriented development
Liveable Neighbourhoods
Local conditions:
Demographics
Employment
Environmental conditions
Topography
Coastal location
64 district structure plan