Montague Background_Paper.pdf - City of Port Phillip

5.5 Montague’s Public Realm
The public realm is the shared meeting and living
spaces within the community and includes road
reserves, parks and semi-public spaces such as
footpaths and schools.
High quality, high amenity urban environments are
rewarding places to live and work in, and
improvements to the public realm can help attract
private investment as well as fostering positive social
interactions between diverse members of the
community.
The design and quality of the public realm influences
both the experience people have, and they way they
behave within it. Well designed public spaces creates
the necessary amenity for residents and workers,
while poorly conceived public spaces can discourage
visitors and create numerous other anti-social issues
within an area.
Public Open Space
The City of Port Phillip contains 4.3 ha of public open
space per 100 people (2006). With population
growth, this is projected to fall to 3.3ha per 100
people by 2026.
There is limited provision of high quality public open
space within Montague or within a 400m walkable
catchment. Provision is limited to the Port
Melbourne Light Rail Reserve along the Light Rail
Corridor (west of Montague) and the small Sol Green
Reserve (south of City Road) (Figure 17).
The lack of available public open space reflects the
current industrial zoning and land uses within
Montague.
The elevated West Gate Freeway is a barrier to
connectivity and provides a series of unpleasant
spaces where pedestrian amenity is seriously
compromised.
In the local region there are high quality public open
spaces within a 2km radius of the Precinct including JL
Murphy reserve (playing fields), Gasworks Park and
Lagoon Reserve.
Further away, the Foreshore is accessible along the
light rail linear park, and the Yarra River is accessible
along Montague Street and under the M1 Freeway.
In the event of a transition to higher order land uses;
the potential for a high number of residents living in
medium to high density housing with limited private
open space presents challenges for the provision of
public open space in Montague.
Activities and spaces more usually provided for in
private backyards such as child’s play, dog exercise,
contemplation space, BBQ’s, entertainment areas,
large shade trees and green space, will need to be
provided in the public realm, and where possible in
shared communal private open space in new
residential developments.
The plan for Montague should ensure that a diverse
range of public spaces are considered that can be
utilised by different users groups who may have
different and often competing needs and desires.
There are a number of measures in which Council
can influence improvements to the public realm. The
development of the Structure Plan will seek to plan
for and provide new spaces and general public realm
and streetscape improvements.
Mechanisms to secure private sector contributions to
public realm improvements will need to be
investigated and identified. A clear and transparent
process for both Council and prospective developers
is required.
It is essential that provision for such facilities is
planned at an early stage in order to deal with the
transition of the area to a more intensive residential /
business precinct.
Street Trees
Street trees are generally well established throughout
Montague. Normanby Road has a mature avenue of
elm trees whilst other streets have a reasonable mix
of indigenous and exotic street trees. Boundary
Street has a mature planting of mixed native and
exotic tree spaces.
There are examples, such as along Montague Street,
where street tree planting is sporadic and fails to
significantly contribute to a pleasant pedestrian
environment.
Despite many trees being limited in height by the
presence of overhead power lines, the street trees
and nature strips do play a role in ‘softening’ the
relatively hard urban environment.
Council’s Urban Forest Strategy has identified streets
within Montague for both infill planting and complete
renewal. These plantings were designed for an
industrial area and in the light of a transition to higher
order land uses for the Plan will need to be revised
for Montague.
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