equanimity.blog

Residents are pushing back against untrammeled growth

In the middle of the year, Kurilpa Futures (a residents’ advocacy group based in West End) reached out to a variety of similar organizations across Brisbane to gauge their interest in convening a citywide coalition.

“Such a group would be able to advocate for better community engagement across the entire city to ensure that people and the environment are placed at the heart of local and metropolitan planning in Brisbane.”

The invitation, in brief [my emphasis]:

Dear Fellow Residents of Brisbane,

For the past 10 years Kurilpa Futures (KF) has been campaigning for active and community transport, human scale development, affordable and social housing, more public open space and green space, avoiding high density development of the flood plain and the timely provision of community infrastructure to keep pace with growth. However, what we have seen over this time from all levels of government and the development industry is an erosion of the involvement of citizens in the planning process and varying forms of densification across the suburbs that erodes liveability and endangers local identity and the natural environment. We are not anti-density and understand that the city needs to increase the supply of dwellings that are affordable in the right locations to address the cost of living through access to services, jobs and transport.

We think it is time for us to work with other groups across the city to change this government enabled developer driven planning culture. We would like to invite one or two members of your group to an initial meeting to discuss how we might be more effective if we worked together on some issues.

Email, 15th July, 2024

Sustainable Population Australia was also invited and I accepted a nomination to attend on its behalf.

The inaugural meeting of the Brisbane urban coalition took place in South Brisbane in July. It was a success and has met monthly since. To date more than 17 groups have had some kind of involvement:

• Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance
• Brisbane Residents United
• Milton Community Gardens Group
• Mt Coot-tha Protection Alliance Inc
• Queensland Conservation Council
• Queensland Walks
• Redlands2030
• Residents of Mookooka, Nathan and Wynnum
• Rethink the Gabba
• Roma St Parklands
• Save Victoria Park
• South East Queensland Community Alliance
• Spring Hill community Association Inc
• Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum
• St Lucia Community Association
• Victoria Barrambin Residents Action Group
• WECA West End Community Assn
• Wynum Manly and Sandgate

What’s a Sustainable Population, Brisbane?

Sustainable Population Australia’s role has been to articulate the risks of not addressing demand. We regard unrelenting pressure for population growth as reckless and detrimental to our environment, both natural and built. We see densification as a reduction in quality of life. Similarly, regionalization has been shown to be ineffective in practice, however desirable it may be. It is a distraction from the issue of demand. (For more, see below.)

Brisbane’s new urban coalition

The Brisbane urban coalition is a loose network of groups. So far, it operates without an agreed name, but it has some achievements worth mentioning.

Before the state election, we issued a Letter to Politicians announcing our existence, stating:

Unfortunately when it comes to decision-making, governments in Queensland have often worked on the basis of making the decision behind closed doors, then announcing it, then having to defend it. There has often been public backlash as a result, which could potentially have been avoided if local communities had been consulted in the first place. 

What we all share is a desire to make our region great. The best way to achieve this will always be up for debate, but be aware that we expect to be consulted in the process.

Strength in Solidarity

The group has formulated a Governance Protocol.

It has enabled the coordination of activities that otherwise might have happened in relative isolation, such as submissions to urban planning schemes. We’ve learned about the latest technology that helps visualize future projects; a generative Sim that creates evocative imagery that could be used by community groups to help demonstrate the impact of proposals on the communities. Dutch Cycling Lifestyle website was shown as an example.

We also share current news, such as the Brisbane City Council’s quiet go-slow on spending on everything from tree planting to park upgrades. Apparently there are budgetary problems and spending is unlikely to revive until it’s back in the black or the next election looms.

Demand is the Elephant in the Room

The challenges ahead are significant. The Brisbane City Council has been captured by the Liberal National Party which is in it’s fifth consecutive term with a majority of wards, along with a sixth consecutive mayoral term.^[5] It has given developers a front-row seat in a rate-payer funded body that it created to take advice on urban planning. It is believed that Council has lowered fees on developer applications, despite the budget crunch. The LNP’s stranglehold on the BCC is unhealthy. It controls all the committees that prepare laws for the Assembly to approve. It has been impossible to taint their slick public relations exercise. One wonders why the electorate tolerates this, but in a complex and uncertain world, perhaps stability is irrizistable [sic]. This seems to be limited to local government, perhaps because the issues are less open to culture wars. The Australian Labor Party is enjoying a similarly long streak in government in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).

Therefore, it is crucial for resident groups to keep all our options open. For example, submissions on Housing Availability and Affordability that only consider supply and ignore demand, undermine our efforts. Densification and regionalization are not environmentally benign solutions. Some of it is sensible, but more than anything, it serves as a distraction. Every kilojoule of effort spent pushing back on over population yields a far greater return on results than resisting the symptoms of bad urban planning and over-development. Collectively, our efforts are lop-sided towards accommodating growth.

The South East Queensland Community Alliance called a Morning Conversation to which many groups involved in the Brisbane coalition attended. It was an opportunity to speak about our purpose. I described Sustainable Population Australia’s goals in an urban context, which can be seen HERE. Closed captions are available.