Does urban renewal need a rethink?

In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s one of Australia’s first large-scale urban renewal projects was built in Kensington. With two major urban renewals now under way in North Melbourne, are there lessons to be learnt from the nearby Kensington Banks?

Kensington Banks is still considered by many as one of the most successful examples of urban renewal. It created what is described as a walkable, well-serviced neighbourhood with an abundance of enviable open space.

Before the renewal the land was occupied by stockyards, animal auction yards and abattoirs. The industrial use ceased in 1987 and the redevelopment began.

The first phase, on the escarpment north of Epsom Rd, was named Lynch’s Bridge. The second phase, from Epsom Rd down to the Maribrynong River, is Kensington Banks proper.

One of the first parts of the renewal was the creation of the Women’s Peace Garden, near the top of the old stockyards.

The shelters and pathways within the garden were designed to form the symbols for women and peace, with colours of the women’s movement – green, purple and white – represented by the flowers and foliage.

On foot, the gardens mark a main entrance to the top of the renewal area, connecting to a central walking path to the river which incorporates the area’s retained sale yard heritage, surrounded by low-rise housing and small parks.

A new major park was also built at the bottom of the area next to the river to provide concentrated open space while helping to manage flood risks.

RMIT planning Professor Michael Buxton said the renewal was “trailblazing” in combining high amenity with a high-density housing model.

“The density of typical outer urban housing was about seven to 10 dwellings per hectare, Kensington Banks was about 25 dwellings per hectare – a little bit more in some parts – with a mixed, diverse housing approach,” Professor Buxton said.

“It’s single and double storey mostly, with some three storey buildings and some apartments. The density made it interesting, it was attempting in a more modern way to recreate the housing type of Melbourne’s typical pattern of traditional Victorian housing.”

Professor Buxton said removing garages from the street and placing them on rear lanes was a “critical feature”.

“It recreated that Victorian street scape and eradicated that traditional outer urban housing of streets dominated by garages.”

“It is very walkable, and it had really interesting open space – it was recreating that Victorian focus on small parks with housing overlooking the parks.”

“All those features made Kensington Banks a model for future development.”

But Professor Buxton said that model had unfortunately not been followed since. He said Docklands and Southbank were two big opportunities to build on the model, but which went in another direction.

“They were opened up to developers to do whatever they liked, and the development industry decided to go for high rise because there was more money to be made on each site by developers,” he said.

Macaulay and Arden

Plans for the urban renewal of 140 hectares in North Melbourne are now being revised under the Arden and Macaulay structure plans.

Last month’s edition of North West City News reported on the current planning regime in Macaulay.

But Arden has been assigned much higher density targets. The aspiration is to create a major employment precinct – with 34,000 jobs alongside 15,000 residents – by 2051.

High-rise is proposed for much of the precinct, in some places up to 40 storeys.

“It’s not human scale, it’s replicated all the problems that have occurred in Southbank and Docklands,” Professor Buxton said.

“It’s full of high-rise towers that are windy, it’s not a great place to live. Compare it to the low-to-medium rise development and redevelopment occurring all over Europe and the west coast of the US.”

It’s just a shame that the government is replicating its obsession with high rise as the only way to develop these areas.

And despite the delivery of Arden Station scheduled for 2025, Professor Buxton said transport was a major concern.

“There’s no real transport plan for Arden, they should be designing these areas with an integrated transport plan. Much of the Arden development will not be well connected to Melbourne,” he said.

“The nearest tram is 500 metres from Arden Station and a lot of the development will be not connected well internally through public transport.”

“Especially with 34,000 jobs planned they need a better transport system.”

He also said that the proposed affordable housing provision of six per cent was “pathetic”.

“In the west coast of the US it’s a mandated 25 per cent,” he said.

The City of Melbourne recently released summaries of the second round of community consultation on the refresh of the Arden and Macaulay structure plans.

Fifty-five per cent of participants said they supported locating Arden’s taller buildings mainly along the freeway boundary with heights transitioning down to meet adjoining neighbourhoods.

But the report did not clarify the general attitude to high-rise.

The consultation process also floated the possibility of allocating open road space for a dedicated tram or bus service in Arden, which 80 per cent of respondents supported.

Seventy-one per cent of respondents supported mandatory requirements for at least six per cent of all new housing to be affordable for people living on low- to- medium incomes, but it is not clear how many people supported higher thresholds.

Sheila Byard, a Kensington resident since 1972, was on the community advisory committee for the Lynch’s Bridge renewal while she was a lecturer in Urban Studies at Victoria University.

She said the consultation process for Arden and Macaulay had been undertaken “at a high level of generality”.

“It hasn’t shown interest in some of the specific issues, like where the open space will be, how street level amenity will be achieved,” she said.