Infill housing planned for greater Hobart

Most states in Australia have now brought in policies to increase the density of residential dwellings in their major cities. This move to increase net residential density is essentially to control the spiraling cost of infrastructure and services in our cities. Tasmania is following this move with the twelve southern councils agreeing that infill housing must be significantly increased in the Greater Hobart Area. It is proposed that new residential developments will have a density of at least 15 dwellings/Ha which equates to 450 m2 lots. This article discusses what housing at this density will look like and a definition from AMCORD (Australian Model Code for Residential Development) setting out what net residential density means.

Stay with me through the technical stuff for then I have included some interesting photos of CITY EDGE which is an exemplary development showing how an increase in net residential density can greatly increase the residential amenity of a formally degraded inner city area.

Increasing urban net residential density

Over the past week or so I have become aware that the term densification is not a good one to use in Tasmania as it causes confusion and angst. So I turn to AMCORD and its accompanying Practice Note 6 to clarify a standard planning concept in regard to residential density. In particular I want to talk about the concept of net residential density for this is the important one in terms of the codes where they talk about 15 dwellings/Ha or 25 dwellings/Ha.

Net residential density (the built form) is defined as “the ratio of the number of dwellings to the area of land they occupy including internal public streets, plus half the width of adjoining access roads that provide vehicular access to dwellings.” This is the key definition because it is the one being built into planning law across Australia. So where a Scheme says 15 dwellings/ Ha it is referring to net residential density and if all the lots are the same size and for single dwellings this will result in 450 m2 lots usually with 15 m frontages. So when you go up to 25 dwellings/Ha there needs to be some mixed use dwellings above shops and offices plus town houses, terrace houses and apartments to bring the density up to that level. Generally, there is a mix of net residential density across a sizable development that averages out to the prescribed density.

There are some other associated terms in AMCORD such as Lot Density, Gross Density (relating to the neighborhood) and Urban Residential Density that relates to the suburb or urban region. However, these terms are used for different purposes to those discussed here.

Proposed net residential densities in the Southern Tasmania Land Use Strategy (STRLUS)

The STRLUS prepared and agreed to by the 12 southern councils and presently is with the Minister for ratification under Sec 30C(3) of LUPAA 1993, proposes that there be two residential zones namely a General Residential Zone and an Inner Residential Zone for the Greater Hobart Area. The General Residential Zone will have a density of 15 dwellings/Ha resulting in an average lot size of 450 m2. The Inner Residential Zone shall have a density of 25 dwellings/Ha primarily aimed at infill development. It prescribes that 50% of new lots in the Greater Hobart Area will be infill housing for the next 25 years.
I have discussed why a higher residential density in our cities is essential in a previous article entitled “Big Changes Coming to the Way We Live in Urban Areas”. The main reasons are to move towards Environmentally Sensitive Development (ESD) and for economic reasons. This move will cause a lot of debate out over the next twenty years so it is important to all be on the same page in terms of the concepts being discussed.

Unfortunately Hobart does not have good examples of high quality developments of higher density housing to demonstrate to people that they can be a very acceptable place to live.

Densification

So increasing the net residential density is what I am talking about and I was using the term densification as being synonymous or as an abbreviation of this concept. Clearly increasing net residential density does not usually mean getting rid of public open space in the city. It certainly has very little to do with having more mature trees within the city centre. There is also little gained by comparing Hobart to Zurich as the latter has a population density of 4,049/km2 which is more than four times that of Hobart and households live predominantly in multi store dwellings.

So to those that got a bit worked up and used the terms such as paternalism, patronage, mediocrity and blowing smoke without any facts or figures, I am sorry about the confusion over the term densification. I hope you will see that what I have written above are basically facts when it comes to urban planning. Indeed most of the people that come out of the UNSW planning school, like me, receive an Applied Science Degree and that influences their approach to the discipline.

CITY EDGE: an example of an exemplary development with high net residential density.

A picture tells a thousand words so I am hoping TT can include some pictures of what I consider one of the best examples of increasing net residential density in an inner city area. This development called City Edge at O’Connor in the inner city area of Canberra was built as a joint venture between Community Housing Canberra and CIC Pty Ltd. It was built on a site that is a bit over a hectare on what was formerly a degraded site occupied by rundown housing commission flats. The development contains 124 dwellings made up of 86 apartments, 12 terrace houses, 25 town houses and one commercial suite and is adjacent to O’Connor shops. It used a number of innovative measures including the improvement of the adjacent wetlands/drainage channel, solar street lighting, heat pumps and solar-boosted hot water systems.

This City Edge precinct is also home to a number of social housing tenants and several dwellings were specifically designed for disabled clients. Some of the larger dwellings in this development are now worth over a million dollars. This development gives people a high level of residential amenity and an important choice as to what sort of dwelling they want to live in around the centre of Canberra.

Finally, I would like to specifically point out the extensive area of user friendly and safe open space in this precinct. In other projects that I have been involved in, we have taken a hectare or so of inner land, bulldozed the paling fences and introduced an increased number of dwellings. The density of the housing is increased in these precincts to provide more open space for the residents. Developments like City Edge also have an important mix of tenants ranging from those on moderate incomes to those on relatively high incomes. As a result the precinct will have a much longer life cycle and maintain its level of amenity over the long term.